Part Two
Vignettes*
*Word Power Dictionary (Copyright Readers Digest Association, 2001) Vignette: a
brief, evocative description, account or episode.
There have been many experiences and awarenesses over the years that do not necessarily fit the narrative in any either chronological or other sequential manner in Part One yet do augment and complement it. They are offered here to provide further insight into and understanding of the Universal, Loving, Creative Intelligent Force called Life, Love, God, Papa — or whatever resonates for you — and the process of our emerging remembrance of the truth of our eternal, spiritual reality. May these vignettes be beneficial in assisting our restoration to Oneness in the Creator for all Eternity — our true and only Home, which we know as Heaven.
There are twenty-seven Vignettes, as follows:
1. “Stand in the Holy Place; stand in the Lowly Place”
4. First Encounter with the Holy Spirit
5. The Free Gift of Forgiveness
8. Seeds of Redemption; Charles
11. The Crucifixion: “I did it to get your attention”
12. The False Doctrine of Sacrifice as the Path to Salvation
14. “There is no light of discernment ”
16. Peter: “I came to clear the way for her”
19. Ted’s passing, rescue and going forward
20. From breaking rocks to breaking bread
21. Laser: amplifying the Light for the Kingdom
23. Exorcising possessing spirits
24. Religious misperceptions of Duty
25. The Gathering of the Clans
27. Jesus in bedrock hell fastening the escape ladder to the floor
1. “Stand in the Holy Place; stand in the Lowly Place”
In the early hours one night in October 1997 I had awareness of Papa; how beneficial it is to our spiritual growth to focus, focus, focus on Him, honour Him, love Him, give thanks to Him, rejoice in Him, TRUST Him, immerse ourselves in, give ourselves to, Him, allow this focus to be the Light. Or rather, be aware that this activity amplifies the Light which fills us, stimulates the radiance within us until we cannot contain it any more and it bursts forth in/as a mighty laser beam upon the world (of un-God-aware humanity) around us. This brings blessing, transformation, God Power to make new, whether by uplifting or disintegrating and re-creating (as in the metamorphosis of caterpillar into butterfly).
Papa spoke in the midst of all this: Stand in the Holy Place.
Then I was suddenly aware of myself, as it were, in the form of a lowly invertebrate, like an inchworm, down on the ground, crawling across the debris of a woodland floor, in the darkness of the night, but illuminated by a full moon. As I wondered why I was experiencing this, Papa spoke again: I AM in this (and all such lowly creatures). Do thou stand in the Lowly Place.This was the end of the experience, but while the first admonition had no meaning for me on its own (other than the obvious), when both statements are considered in relation to each other, the implications were exponentially greater.
The fact that this scene was at night symbolises spiritual darkness, or absence of the light of spiritual discernment for humanity in the time and place consciousness. The inchworm symbolises the low level of existence to which the Son of God is subjecting himself in his self-inflicted game of seeming separation from his Father. And the moonlight symbolises the psychic consciousness, as distinct from spiritual awareness and knowledge, which always, without the fire of spirit to empower, uplift and direct it toward the Light of Eternal Truth, follows the path of least resistance, and sinks lower and lower, or further and further from the Light.
Nevertheless, the perfect Love of Papa is boundless, and reaches down to us in the lowly place, irrespective of whether we have conscious awareness of it, and however low we allow ourself to fall.
For many years I had been trying to reconcile in my mind that on the one hand we are taught to perceive God, the Most High, as pure, unsullied by anything ‘unclean’; to wear our best suit to church; to avoid the things one did not discuss in ‘polite company’, whilst on the other hand, that nature (which from the dawn of human consciousness has been seen as God in diversity) includes slugs, excrement, bacteria, malaria-carrying mosquitoes, thistles, vultures, stinging nettles, rattlesnakes, animals eating each other alive, parasites, famines, and untold other aspects that are not the ‘Sunday best’ face of God. If God is Life, and that Life is everywhere, indeed, in everything, He must be in the Life that is in all the ‘unsavoury’ parts also, even when there is no awareness of His Presence.
by being
disdainful (or fearful)
of what we perceive as ‘the Lowly Place’ we
make ourselves lowly (spiritually) and by willingness to stand
in the Lowly Place, in spiritual humility (as Jesus did), immediately
restores us to holiness.
What I immediately realised Papa was telling me by this message is that He is the All-Knowingness in all these things; that it is the All-Knowingness in all these things that is Holy, and that standing in the lowly place in perfect, unconditional love, blessing, acceptance, joy, thanksgiving — all the characteristics that we can readily identify as being Godly — is the humility that is an indivisible aspect of the Holy One, and that transforms a lowly place into a Holy Place. This experience was reminding me that by being disdainful (or fearful) of what we perceive as the lowly place we make ourselves lowly (spiritually). Conversely, our willingness to stand in the lowly place, in spiritual humility (as Jesus did) immediately restores us to holiness. Jesus demonstrated this by words and actions:
Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls.
(Mt. 11:29)When thou art bidden of any man to a wedding, sit not down in the highest room; lest a more honourable man than thou be bidden of him; And he that bade thee and him come and say to thee, Give this man place; and thou begin with shame to take the lowest room. But when thou art bidden, go and sit down in the lowest room; that when he that bade thee cometh, he may say unto thee, Friend, go up higher: then shalt thou have worship
(i.e. honour, respect) in the presence of them that sit at meat with thee. For whosoever exalteth himself shall be abased; and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted. (Lk. 14:8-11).He riseth from supper, and laid aside his garments; and took a towel, and girded himself. After that he poureth water into a bason, and began to wash the disciples’ feet, and to wipe them with the towel wherewith he was girded. Then cometh he to Simon Peter: and Peter saith unto him, Lord, dost thou wash my feet? Jesus answered and said unto him, What I do thou knowest not now; but thou shalt know hereafter.
Peter saith unto him, Thou shalt never wash my feet. Jesus answered him, If I wash thee not, thou hast no part with me. (Jn. 13:4-8).
In a 1990 Communion, as I held the bread aloft during the consecration, Steve said he could see it shining as bright as a magnesium flare and that he had become aware of a group of Native American chieftains, sitting in a tepee around a fire. At the same moment that Steve had seen the shining bread, so had it equally attracted their attention. Steve realised that one of these was Sitting Bull, who was deeply bewildered by this sudden awareness. We explained to him and his friends what was happening, that there was nothing to fear and that he was welcome to join us if he desired.
Clearly, he did desire and we have had many encounters with him over the years. In one such, Steve and I were having a pub lunch after he had helped me clear out our old offices when we moved the business back to the house. As Steve and I sat in the pub enjoying the convivial atmosphere and I lit a post-prandial cigar, Sitting Bull suddenly stuck his head over a room-divider screen right beside us and, beaming genially said, ‘I will smoke the pipe of peace with you!”.
***
In November 1996 I was brought into the presence of Henry VIII. He had been stuck in a time warp for about four hundred and fifty years in Earth timing. He was wandering the wood-panelled corridors at Penshurst Place, still dressed as he did in the 16th century, with a glowering look on his face. He emitted a vibration of sullenness, rather like a petulant schoolboy. I asked him why he was so unhappy. He said he was sick of being surrounded by fawning, toadying sycophants, who he knew did not respect or like him and were afraid of him, when all he really wanted was a true friend, who would speak as he found. He said that his entourage were yes-men but did not do as he really wished.
I told him I was not afraid of him, would speak as I found and would be a true friend if he so wished. He was noticeably surprised at my candour but even so, this did not satisfy him because he was disgruntled that I did not show him all the appropriate courtly respect that he felt he should be accorded as King. Nevertheless, it was obvious that he secretly and begrudgingly was glad to be spoken to in such a forthright manner, which he never got from those around him. He also indicated that he felt trapped in this place. I told him that it was his negative attitude that was actually entrapping him.
Although our discussion had discernibly made an impact upon him, he was not ready to outwardly budge from his obdurate posture and I realised it would be best to leave him to reflect upon our encounter and visit with him again later.
When we met the next time, a few days later, it was clear he was pleased to see me, and his demeanour had lightened significantly. He was still rooted in his earlier opinions of his courtiers and the lack of real freedom and power, to which he felt he was entitled as King. We chatted, and I debated with him the unserviceableness of his attitude. By the end of that meeting he was less rigid than at the beginning in his adopted stance on how life had dealt him a poor hand, but it was nevertheless clear that he was not yet ready to go forward into the Light of spiritual freedom, so I decided to leave him to consider these things in his own time again.
At a third meeting, just before the start of a Communion service, we had a long heart to heart. He was now truly oscillating between wanting to let go of, and being rigidly stuck in, his long-held views, of which he had been so certain he was right, and therefore, why should he change? After all, he was the King (damnit!).
But here was this stranger who actually spoke to him straight — the impudent whelp! — and made a lot of sense, and to whom he was drawn as someone he could trust, and, in spite of himself, he actually could not help liking; and by unequivocal talking was causing him to perceive things in a way that for centuries he had been unable, but more, unwilling, to see. Yet every time he came within a whisker of relenting and giving up his four-hundred-and-fifty-year old charade, he drew back again.
“I am the King!” he proclaimed. “I will be respected and why should I give up my rightful position?”
Nevertheless, he accepted me as a true (not sycophantic) friend now, and I told him he is no longer King. He said if he gave up all this he would have nothing; he was fearful at this. I told him that outwardly, Jesus had nothing in this life but he was the only true King of this world. I told him we must be prepared to give up everything, in accord with the Lord’s teaching. I invited him to stay for our service. At that moment I became aware of the Master Jesus and Sir Thomas More being with us, although Hal (as Henry VIII is widely and affectionately known) had no such awareness at that moment. Thomas spoke to Hal through me.
“Hal, there is only one true King and that is Jesus of Nazareth. Until you can acknowledge him not just as ‘the Lord’ but Lord of your life, in all sincerity, you cannot go forward.”
As the impact of these words sunk in, Hal suddenly became aware of the Master and immediately, spontaneously, fell to his knees and bowed his head in allegiance.
“My liege,” he said, in deep humility.
The Master, radiating joy, peace and love, stepped forward and reached out his arms to Hal, saying, Arise, Sir Hal. He took the Master’s proffered hands and stood. As he did so his raiment was transformed to a simple white robe, except he still had on his hat.
“Hal,” I said, “you still have on your old hat!”
He became aware of it, and pulling it off his head he threw it over his shoulder.
“I don’t need that any more!” he exclaimed in a loud voice, filled with great joy.
At last he has gone forward and accepted the Lord’s reality, and perhaps even more important, his own true reality.
***
At a subsequent Communion after the rescue of Hal, he and Sitting Bull encountered each other. They stood face to face, a little less than an arm’s length apart in the middle of the floor, where there was a clearing about the size of a boxing ring, with everyone else seated around them. It was a very dramatic moment. The atmosphere was charged with anticipation.
the issues outstanding between them could not be set at rest, and
reconciliation established until the relationship between them was brought
back into fair and equitable balance.
They looked deeply into each other’s eyes for several minutes. Both are big men, well over six feet tall, and both, in their different ways, very impressive figures, with a natural nobility emanating from them. During this time, not a word was spoken, but the exchange of information that took place between them, through their eyes, into their minds, was that of centuries of each other’s peoples’ histories, and how European Man, represented here by Hal, had so dreadfully impacted upon the lives of the Native American peoples, represented here by Sitting Bull.
This mind-to-mind exchange of information was like two computers downloading data to each other, and was happening at least at the same rate as today’s high-speed microprocessors work. I could sense, if not actually hear, the exchange taking place. Sitting Bull was imparting to Hal the actual experience of the events that had taken place ― how his people had been so ill-used by European colonists ― and how this situation clearly called for redress. The issues between them could not rest, nor could reconciliation and fair and equitable balance be restored and established in their relationship without full understanding and true forgiveness; for to understand all is to forgive all. Only then could both races move forward together, freely, unencumbered, into the light of the third — fulfilment — measure of meal, the Kingdom Age, now dawning on planet Earth.
For his part, Hal would have had no awareness of the genocide that had taken place west of the Atlantic Ocean — after the end of his incarnation, by colonists from Europe — and this was therefore an update for his record. At the soul level these two men and the peoples they represented are One, as are we all.
Culture, skin colour and any other illusory, outward differences are things to be accepted and honoured rather than feared and attacked. All these things and the implications of them for their respective peoples and what to do about them, to bring about that redress and restore peace, harmony and balance between these two races, so long at odds with each other, were exchanged between them.
There was no enmity, no animosity between these men. They were simply being provided, at last, with an opportunity to come to a place of meeting on equal terms, to exchange information, views and commitments to each other, on behalf of their respective peoples.
After their information exchange was completed, there was a sudden change of mood. Each turned slightly to his left and, still without a single word being spoken, they raised and linked their right hands at eye level, with inner wrists touching, and performed an on-the-spot, rotating ritual dance, eyes interlocked, gaze never breaking. It was a curious dance, with only legs moving, slightly reminiscent of Irish dancing, but with a very different style of leg movement. In Irish dancing only the legs move, from the hips down; in this dance, the only parts of their bodies that moved were their feet, from the ankles, and for much of it they were on their toes, almost like ballet.
It seemed incongruous for two such big, noble-looking, powerful men to be moving so easily in this unusual manner; bodies and heads remained in a fixed position in relation to each other, simply rotating as their feet moved. After several clockwise turns they stopped, switched hands and reversed the dance, anticlockwise. This was done several times. They moved in perfect synchrony even though there was no rehearsal and nothing spoken. I knew this was an act, a symbol of reconciliation between them and their peoples and the sealing of their respective commitment to work together for the establishing of a kingdomly relationship between those they represent.
Truly, we had been witness to as momentous an occasion of healing and restoration of relationships as anyone might be blessed to see. I give thanks that this Communion ritual was the instrument by which it was able to be brought about. What is now the significant issue is how each individual member of these races, incarnate and discarnate, desires, chooses, implements such a state in his own heart, mind, soul and actions toward his fellows of that other race (and indeed, all other races).
At a later encounter with Sitting Bull I said to him, only half joking, “I now wish to know you as ‘Standing Bull’, because you have increased in stature by such a quantum leap that I can only envision you as standing, tall and proud.” He was greatly appreciative of these words of commendation.
Not long after the experience with Hal and Sitting Bull, one Sunday morning before Communion, as I got into the shower, I suddenly saw William F. Cody (Buffalo Bill). His face was at an angle to me and I could tell he had no awareness of me. It was like a life-size cameo image of his head and shoulders. He was looking away into the distance. I knew who it was immediately because I had been an avid reader of the Buffalo Bill annuals as a boy, and also visited the Buffalo Bill Museum at Boulder, Colorado in 1967. Further, when he had toured the UK with his Wild West Show in 1904 he had given a scouting knife to my grandmother (then nineteen years old), who immigrated to Canada approximately eight years later. I still have that knife today.
Having recently been considering the awful acts against the Native Americans by European colonists and the role of WF Cody in those events, I blurted out, before thinking about it, “How could you have done that?” Instantly he was gone, blown away by my indignant outburst. Although he had not seen me, the force of psychic energy directed at him had severed the connection. I believe that if I had thought more carefully and been empathetic, accepting and non-judgemental, a link could have been established that could have created huge opportunities for further progress in the reconciliation process between the Native American and European races.
Nevertheless, with the resourcefulness of the Lord and all the other Beings of Light working with him for the Kingdom of Heaven on Earth — to which such reconciliation, along with reconciliations between all the other broken relationships that cover planet Earth, will contribute so greatly and so invaluably — other opportunities will, assuredly, abound.
4. First encounter with the Holy Spirit
By the late 1990s I had been on my journey back to God, with Jesus leading me (how else would I have known the Way!?), for more than thirty years — during this ‘act’, or incarnation —and by now had also started to become consciously aware of Papa’s speaking to me. But so far, the Holy Spirit, to Whom Jesus refers three times in John’s Gospel as the Spirit of Truth and also the Comforter, was still a completely unknown quantity to me.
Yet, Jesus’ speaking of ‘Him’ is highly significant. He said to the disciples at the Last Supper:
I
will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever; Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you. (Jn. 14:16,17)But when the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father, he shall testify of me
(Jn. 15:26)I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now. Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will shew you things to come
. (Jn. 16:12,13)These statements could easily be classified as ‘very important’, yet as far as I was aware, the world at large knew nothing of Him, and I certainly was completely unable to get a handle on Him, in spite of having a high level of interest in so doing.
However, it was obvious that He knew of my desire, and He made himself known to me for the first time in a very mundane and unlikely situation, as this entry from Diary of a Christ Communicant records shows:
Late October 1997
Susie (our rescued Lhasa Apso dog) was suffering badly from back trouble, and as I asked Papa’s guidance on whether to take her to the vet I became aware of what seemed to be ‘Spirit Wind’. I had a sense of it swirling round like a spiralling cloud, with a human-type face, radiating peace, joy and love. It was reminiscent of an illustration in a child’s story book of a benign, westerly breeze, blowing in a cloud. There was no sign of physical disturbance — I felt only an absolute stillness and inward tranquillity, serenity, peace; a considerable contrast to the way in which the metaphysical wind appeared to be swirling. I asked what this was and the Voice spoke, from the face in the cloud; it was somehow not Papa or the Master Jesus, yet had Their same authority:
I AM the Spirit of Truth, and after a slight pause, the Holy Breath. The rest of the communication was telepathic (or, Mind-to-mind communing), explaining that the visitation was to bring a message of positive assurance from Papa, in response to my asking, to leave Susie in His loving hands; not to expect an instant fix but to leave it with Him and be constant in faith; not to be concerned if she didn’t eat for a few days.
This experience was, in my heart and the inner discernment of my mind, completely and utterly real, and it gave me a new sensation of awareness, of faith, trust and the ensuing willingness to be obedient to this Inner Awareness.
From that moment, Susie went into the dog’s bed under my desk. She never went there before; it had been our previous dog’s bed and Susie instinctively honoured that and kept out of it, even after Muffy had come to the end of her sojourn with us. Susie stayed in that bed for four days without moving except to do her business, eat (not much) and come into the house with us at the end of each day.
From that time on, her back gave her no further trouble.
I was reminded afterwards of how the disciples first encountered the Comforter, or Holy Spirit, as described in Acts 2:2: suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting. I can make no claim to there being a ‘sound as of a mighty, rushing wind’, but for just one person, perhaps my attention was easier to attract, and It, or He, was most certainly from Heaven, and appearing as a rushing wind.
What, then, of His words, ‘the Holy Breath’?
Let us turn to John’s Gospel again, chapter 20, in which it says, on the day of Jesus’ resurrection:
... the same day at evening, being the first day of the week, when the doors were shut where the disciples were assembled for fear of the Jews, came Jesus and stood in the midst, and saith unto them, Peace be unto you: And when he had so said, he shewed unto them his hands and his side. Then were the disciples glad, when they saw the Lord: Then said Jesus to them again, Peace be unto you: as my Father hath sent me, even so send I you: And when he had said this, he breathed on them, and saith unto them, Receive ye the Holy Ghost:
Assuredly, this record from John’s Gospel affirms the meaning and His Identity in this, my first encounter with Him, the Spirit of Truth. Since then my awakening has progressed to the place of understanding, greatly helped by A Course in Miracles, that the Holy Spirit is our connection with Papa and with our true Being while we are in the illusion of time and place. This is confirmed by His explaining to me that that visitation was to bring a message of positive assurance from Papa, in response to my asking. A Course in Miracles also explains that the Holy Spirit is identical to our true Being, or Self, dwells within our mind, and is the connection with our true Whole (Holy) Self, or Christ, Papa’s Son, until we are restored to remembrance of our true Being.
How characteristic of Papa’s Voice to make Himself first known to me in such a mundane, yet close-to-my-heart matter as a wellbeing issue with our beloved, precious Susie.
5. The Free Gift of Forgiveness
This event took place during a Communion Service in 1998. The Diary entry for the date describes the event:
Holy Communion September 13, 1998
As I knelt to make my dedication I felt Papa above and around me. He held me in the stillness and said
, My son, draw closer to Me. Open yourself to receive My love more. I realised that we have been led to believe that we must spend so much time in service to others that we don’t allow enough focus on receiving Papa’s love and blessing for ourselves, to accept the wholeness that is His eternal free gift to us, and that He longs for us to receive. This erroneous belief is ‘the lie of Satan’.
He was holding a bolt of lightning. It was pure living gold, radiant and bright as the sun. He swooped His hand down with it and placed it in my spine.
At the Kingdom prayer, as I spoke the words to Papa ‘… forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors…’ He jumped in and instantly, emphatically said,
I forgive you! He was holding in His right hand what looked like a bolt of lightning, about sixty centimetres (two feet) long. It was jagged, rather reminiscent of stylised illustrations of such. It was pure living gold, radiant and bright as the sun. He swooped His hand down with it and placed it in my spine. I felt the restorative power with which it filled me.I realised that forgiveness — and the wholeness into which it releases us — is ours because He has given it to us, and He longs for us to receive it. But we cannot receive it until we ‘repent’. Forgiveness is integral with repentance, which simply means turning round and being restored to full, loving, eternally-living relationship with Him. Until we ‘come to ourselves’ and turn around 180 degrees from facing the darkness, and face toward the Light, which is Papa, how can the free gift of forgiveness (and with it the restoration to wholeness and Life) that He constantly proffers be ours until we are willing to gladly receive and accept it unto ourself?
Beloved Papa, truly wholeness, restoration, life itself, is Your gift of the Spirit. It is the Holy Spirit, the Holy Breath, the wondrous Comforter. I thank You for Your revelation today, and joyfully open myself, the door of my life, to receive Your love more. Thank You for giving me Your forgiveness. It is, I now know, the real experience, and does transform our lives from within. I feel freed from the burdens of unforgiveness that have been ebbing and flowing around and within me.
My son, rightfully you say that this is My free gift to all who desire, earnestly, to receive it and hold fast in faith, trust, obedience+ and commitment to my Word. It is not possible for you to forgive* others, only to desire to forgive others. By so desiring, I give you the gift of forgiveness and then you truly have forgiveness. It flows out from you, through you. In Truth, it is not yours to give. All things come of Me and are My free gift to all who will receive freely. Thus can these good gifts not be abused or manipulated by distorted desires.
Eternal life is My free gift also to all who desire to receive it. Let your desire be pure in all things, My son. I empowered My beloved Firstborn for forgiveness of ‘sins’ on Earth because it is My gift to give to whomsoever I choose. This was befitting of his status and his mission, so that as many as I gave to him should recognise him as My Anointed Messenger. To you I say, pray for your fellows as many and as often as you are able. So shall the incense rise up to Me as a pleasant aroma and enable the outpouring of My love and wholeness to be received, to enter in whereunto I send it.
Peace be with you; all is well.
+ This means obedience to our own, inner Self, shining the Light of eternal truth into our mind.
* This refers to ‘false forgiveness’. As stated on page 638 in the Text of A Course in Miracles: “It pardons ‘sinners’ sometimes, but remains aware that they have sinned. And so they do not merit the forgiveness that it gives. This is the false forgiveness which the world employs to keep the sense of sin alive.”
False forgiveness, then, is where the ‘sin’ is acknowledged and then ‘forgiven’. However, the flaw in this misperception is that by acknowledging the sin, we give it reality. This is a ploy of ego mind, which wants us to remain bogged-down in a false world of sin.
This communion was seven years before I came to A Course in Miracles and the above quote about false forgiveness. When Papa says that it is not possible for me to forgive others, only to desire to forgive, but that He had empowered Jesus in this, I interpret this as meaning that all the while the fragmented Sonship perceives sin as real, we are unable, of our limited, persona self, to truly forgive, but when we desire to forgive, we begin on the path back to wakefulness, remembrance of our true Being as His one Son, Christ. Then, like Jesus, we come to realise that there is no actual sin, only a dream of sin, so true forgiveness becomes possible for us because, as Jesus states in A Course in Miracles, page 401 of the Workbook for Students:
Forgiveness recognizes what you thought your brother did to you has not occurred. It does not pardon sins and
(thus) make them real (‘false’ forgiveness). It sees there was no sin. And in that view are all your sins forgiven. What is sin, except a false idea about God's Son? Forgiveness merely sees its falsity, and therefore lets it go. What then is free to take its place is now the Will of God.
In a dream experience, I had returned to the house from walking the dog, to find that the kitchen had been stripped of all its fixtures and fittings. The walls and floor were bare, looking as it did when we ripped-out the entire old kitchen a few years before, prior to refitting it. Even some of the rotted flooring was removed. Since I knew this work had been done before, I was considerably puzzled that this had been done again, obviously by Theresa (I ‘knew’ this was who had done it, though in the physical world she could not have done it by herself). To my surprise I was not upset, just puzzled! As Susie (the dog) and I stood there, metaphorically scratching our heads and wondering what this was all about, I heard Theresa come in the front door. I waited for her to cross the hall and enter the kitchen.
To my amazement and delight, when she entered the room she was absolutely radiant. She was full-figured but not over-weight, beautiful as she had always been, but now looking in her prime of life, the pinnacle of womanhood, again. At the time of this experience she was over fifty, had put on weight from hormone imbalance resulting from menopause and HRT that had been wrongly prescribed, and was experiencing post-viral fatigue syndrome and psoriasis.
“Why have you done this?” I enquired, indicating the shell of a kitchen around us.
She beamed broadly but with a conspiratorial twinkle in her eyes.
“Aaah, that remains to be seen; I have a surprise for you.”
She was radiantly beautiful. The awesome attraction to all the senses of the male by all the emanations of the female of the species exuded from every cell and fibre of her being; from her very soul, in fact. After more than thirty years of our Companionship of the Way, I was drawn like a moth to a lamp. The receptiveness that is the essential nature of womanhood invited, awakened, aroused the expressing, giving nature of my maleness. Every aspect and facet of her being impelled me toward her.
She was irresistible. We embraced, melded into each other; I the giver, the male, entered into her the receiver, the female and we became merged, yet remained our respective selves, so that the rapture of experiencing each other was possible. It was a moment outside time, of experiencing all the energy that is the pure essence of male beingness becoming as one with all the essence that is femaleness. Yin and Yang. Together. Entwined, fitting perfectly together, soul to soul, body to body, life to life.
I found that if I adjusted the focus of my vision slightly in one direction I had awareness of the soul aspect of her being and the physical ceased to be perceptible to me; if adjusted in the other direction, the physical body came into focus and ‘soul Theresa’ slipped just out of focus. By careful adjustment of the balance I could have awareness of both. It was somewhat like the special effects of recent sci-fi films where the body of a person is fleetingly shown in computer-graphic representation so that the inside of the person is also visible; only this was a living, dynamic, pulsing experience, and the soul dimension of Theresa was a great deal more than a computer graphic! It was light-energy, not defined by the sharp outline that our physical body presents.
It was a moment of sensual ecstasy that at the same time was a mystical, spiritual, soul experience.
It was a moment of sensual ecstasy that at the same time was a mystical, spiritual, soul experience.
It was in itself a moment to savour, but there was much more to it than that. It was a magnificent reminder to me of who we really are. So readily are we persuaded that what we experience with our bodily senses is the only reality, but this is not so at all. For too many centuries we have been told, conditioned, brainwashed that we are conceived, born, live and die in sin and unworthiness; that there is ‘no health in us’, and this perception has become so ingrained in our psyche that our true, Self-awareness has been blinded by it. In reality we are created in the likeness of the Creator Spirit; His glorious, magnificent, eternal, innocent, perfect Son. Perceptions to the contrary are ego-constructed religious mythology, doctrine and dogma, not remotely supported by my own experiences of and communications from the living Jesus of Nazareth since 1967 and from Papa, the Creator since the 1990s.
The blight to our vision, caused by this ‘lie of Satan’ has inflicted incalculable damage and misery upon God’s Children for untold æons. Because the conditioning of negative self-perception has been passed down from one generation to the next, society continues to reel from the effects, even though the majority of today’s generation has seen through the sham and hypocrisy of ego’s construct: orthodox, institutionalised, Laodicean religion. This is not to say that every person who attends services conducted by such an institutionalised religion is a sham and a hypocrite, nor that those who lead such services are, either.
Of course vast numbers who attend and lead such events are as sincere as anyone else in what they believe and are doing. It is not the people but the institutions and their constructs, rules, limitations, doctrines, dogmas, exclusivist attitudes that are causing all the sincere, seeking souls to be yoked to unserviceable, negative self-perceptions and to hold such limiting understanding about the Creator, creation, Jesus, themselves and their fellows.
It is these mistaken, constricting perceptions that lead to antipathy, rejection, grievance against and judgement of any who do not/will not allow themselves to be thusly limited. These energies escalate one step at a time into superciliousness, hubris and rejection, excommunication, hatred, murder, genocide and many other levels of ungodly, unkingdomly attitudes and behaviours toward those who are not allied to their own unholy relationships, perceptions and beliefs.
Theresa has been a soul subject to such conditioning by the unwitting agency of her parents, and her self-perception was devastatingly distorted by an upbringing punctuated by physical, emotional, psychological and sexual abuse.
For many years we did not know how to deal with this, and it was the cause of much conflict between us. This was because, not having experienced it myself, I had no idea that a soul could have such a negative sense of self worth, such self doubt, especially when I saw Theresa as such a beautiful, giving, caring, compassionate, effulgent soul. She was having perceptions of her self that I could not imagine, and certainly were not part of my reality, and of course she did not verbalise this, so from my perspective all should have been well because, outwardly in our lives, all was well.
Typically what would happen is that I would say something straightforward, hard to be confused about (so I thought), but her perception of what was said would be something very different, usually something unfriendly, negative, demeaning or aggressive. This would lead to her responding as if what I had said was not what I actually said, or at least believed I said — it all became so confusing! This would cause me to wonder why her response was not relevant to what I had said and… well, you can see that we are already in a tangle.
It would usually get worse from there and I was not the most saintly person when it came to patience. Of course, I did not know she had heard something different from what I had heard myself say, so I was bewildered, frustrated, and after this happening innumerable times and a ‘domestic’ arising, I began to feel I was walking on eggs and had to think very carefully before saying anything. Theresa, also, was so intimidated by this that she was inhibited about speaking her thoughts too!
But now, in recent years we are moving together through this and she has come to see who she really is. I had seen her, experienced her as ‘Goddess’; female, radiant magnificence. It was a glorious encounter, a prophecy, a foretaste of the emerging, soaring Being of Light that she really is; that we all really are. And gradually Theresa has been moving through a metamorphosis, remembering that this is who she really is, and reminding herself (with some help and encouragement from me) that she is acceptable — first to herself and then to others. Self-acceptance, self love is the first step toward wholeness and being lovable and acceptable to, and accepting of, others. The more we crave it, (if we perceive ourselves as not having it), the more we push it — and our fellows — away.
by looking past the outward, temporal, illusory imperfections we will be able to have awareness of our true nature
When/if we are able/ready to choose a perspective on our Self that we are glorious, by looking past the outward, temporal, illusory imperfections to the eternal, magnificent reality of our true Self, then we will become aware of our authentic nature, so that craving will evaporate, because we will realise that we already are that which, in our misperceptions, we have craved. We cannot crave that which is already with us. As acceptance that we really are that inner, boundless Self becomes second nature to us, then the outward imperfections that we have previously perceived as being who and what we are will fall away.
The inner Self radiates out from us to our fellow travellers on the Path back to eternal reality, both here in the earthly life and in the etheric realms. This transformation will be gradual and almost imperceptible, just as every moment of every day we shed tiny particles of dead skin until, over time, we have a completely new skin. The difference is that from time to time we will actually become aware of changes that have taken place within us and these moments of new awareness will be as milestones, holy instants, on the Way. Ultimately, we will see only the face of who we really are, Christ, the One Son of the Father, reflected in our fellows, and they will see the face of Christ reflected in us.
It is said that when two people are in agreement on a given matter, they are of one mind. When all the fragments of the Sonship are in full agreement as to Who we all are, then will we be restored to our true, one-minded state of Being: God’s one, indivisible, beloved Son. Then will we have the Kingdom of Heaven on Earth.
The kitchen, stripped back to the very shell of itself, is a symbol of Theresa, who for so many years had been encumbered with mistaken, outdated, unserviceable perceptions of herself by the conditioning of her abusive upbringing that her functionality as a ‘working kitchen’ was severely impaired. She had now arrived at the place where she had been able to remove all those old fixtures and fittings, taking her back to her essential self. From there, a complete ‘refit’ was now possible, renewing her serviceableness, both to herself and to all who came to her for sustenance and nourishment.
One beautiful sunny day in the summer of 2000, as I walked our dog, Susie, at Crickley Hill Country Park, which straddles the Cotswold escarpment near Gloucester, I turned round to see if she was coming. Momentarily moving backwards, my left foot landed at the rim of a depression in the ground and I came down with all my weight on that foot, causing my ankle to give and my foot to bend in under me.
There was a loud ‘crack’ and I felt the break happen, right in the middle of the ankle joint. I went down as if pole-axed and instantly experienced agonising pain shooting up my leg and through my body in nauseating waves, bringing me within a whisker of passing out — which I really would not have minded doing at that moment!
A thousand thoughts flew through my mind in a micro-second: how will I get back to the car? How will I be able to get about and continue with all the business of work, gardening, walking Susie...? But the immediacy of the pain quickly regained my full attention. I knew I had to focus upon Papa and move into resonance with the wholeness and perfection of Eternity.
I had been reminded by Papa that what shows up heavily disguised as adversity is actually opportunity to transform the ‘stuff’, which we have initially perceived as adversity, into fulfilment. How could I use this understanding to receive healing and restoration to wholeness? I knew it was possible because we have the magnificent example of Jesus and the myriad miracles performed by him. And he reminded us that the things he did, we would do also and greater things than these — if only we can believe.
When Jesus healed someone he often told them
Your faith has made you whole. Their faith, not his. Without their faith in him they could not have received the healing, the wholeness that was radiating out from him, freely, unconditionally lovingly, for all who are willing, (by faith) to receive and accept it unto ourselves. Their faith placed them on the same spiritual wavelength as his — or at least on the same waveband. Likewise, we open ourselves to a state of willingness, by faith, to believe, to receive, to be raised up in our spiritual vibratory rate so that wholeness, perfection, is the frequency on which we begin to vibrate until, in due course — which could be a moment, or a lifetime, or however long, according to how earnestly we desire it, and are willing to accept what is freely given — we become increasingly resonant and eventually we are completely in attunement (at-one-ment) with the Source and Giver of Eternal Life.
Faith is everything when it comes to attunement with the Spirit of Life.
Faith is everything when it comes to attunement with the Spirit of Life. Jesus said of the people of his era, O faithless and perverse generation, how long shall I be with you? (Mt. 17:17). Nothing has changed outwardly, but it is now the beginning of the Kingdom Age, and an awakening to oneness is beginning to take place within the hearts and minds of the people of Earth; a readiness for emerging from the chrysalis and beginning a newness of life at a higher level of awareness, drawn by the Universal Spirit of Life, as the Great Rescue Programme moves forward. The wonderful hymn by A. C. Ainger tells it inspirationally:
God is working his purpose out, as year succeeds to year:
God is working his purpose out, and the time is drawing near —
Nearer and nearer and draws the time — the time that shall surely be,
When the Earth shall be filled with the glory of God as the waters cover the sea.
From utmost East to utmost West, where’er Man’s foot hath trod,
By the mouth of many messengers goes forth the voice of God;
Give ear to me, ye continents — ye isles give ear to me,
That the Earth may be filled with the glory of God as the waters cover the sea.
What can we do to work God’s work, to prosper and increase
The brotherhood of all mankind — the reign of the Prince of Peace?
What can we do to hasten the time — the time that shall surely be,
When the Earth shall be filled with the glory of God as the waters cover the sea?
All we can do is nothing worth, unless God blesses the deed,
Vainly we hope for the harvest-tide, till God gives life to the seed;
Yet nearer and nearer draws the time — the time that shall surely be,
When the Earth shall be filled with the glory of God, as the waters cover the sea.
The Purpose of God truly moves forward and nothing anybody thinks, says or does can hasten or stop it. However, by truly seeking and earnestly desiring the Kingdom of Heaven on Earth, the individual can and does move into resonance with the Great Rescue Programme and in that sense, he can hasten it — for himself. Then, as he begins to radiate that new state of Kingdomliness from within himself outwardly — not by acts of proselytising but simply by living his new, emerging, growing state of beingness — so those around him who are, themselves, ready for a spiritual awakening will be affected by the change of vibration and begin, themselves, to seek. So does the Programme, the Purpose, which is always moving forward, ‘working out’, draw us into Itself. It is as Jesus explained to me in a January 1995 Communion:
...In your mind and heart you may wish to be operating at the highest level of aspiration and spiritual awareness. This is understandable when Earth is in darkness and you wish to be one, again, with the Light; and when you are passionate in your desire to let shine the Light of spiritual reality in the Earth-life affairs of man, to hasten an Awakening.
You also know, for I have assured you many times, this will not hasten the unfoldment of the programme for raising-up the children of Earth. Your prayers and love and attunement will help you, and will help all for whom you pray, and will add to the transforming Light. But the season is pre-determined, even as are the seasons of the year. All that you do in my name and with commitment to me and the Kingdom in your heart will contribute sunshine to the days, even though it will not change the seasons; therefore, keep on with goodwill.
Have no fear. Be of good cheer. Relax and enjoy each and every day. All is well. Walk with me. Talk with me. Breathe with me. Live with me. Let the Kingdom envelop and surround and permeate your being. I will expand your influence among the children of Earth. This is possible by your commitment. It is like a dynamo generating Light energy, which draws the little ones to the Light. Joy be with you all.
As much intuitively as with thought, as I clutched my ankle I said to Papa, “Thank you Papa, thank you Papa, thank you for giving me wholeness and restoration”, multiple times, very rapidly, as the waves of nausea and dizziness swept through me, bringing me to the brink of blacking out. After about a minute of this, suddenly, in an instant, the pain was gone! Nothing. I stared in wonderment. I waited a few seconds to see if this was a momentary lapse in the pain before it set back in, perhaps at a new level? Still nothing. Alleluia. This was an instant healing, just as Jesus had demonstrated innumerable times to the multitudes. Glory be; thanks be; praise be!
Gingerly I moved my foot. Still nothing. Slowly I got up and put my foot to the ground, gradually increasing the weight to see if there was a point at which the damage done by the fall caused the pain to return. Still nothing. I took a step and then another and another and still there was nothing. I could walk just as I had walked five minutes previously. I completed the four-mile walk without a twinge of pain or even discomfort, and drove home. When I told Theresa and showed her the ankle, there was a barely detectable swelling over the ankle bone and no sign of bruising.
8. Seeds of Redemption; Charles
One Friday in February 1995 Theresa and I went to the pub after work for a meal. As we sat at our table with a drink, waiting for our food order to arrive, Theresa hesitantly told me she had had a strange dream earlier in the week. Would I like to hear it? Of course, go for it! In this dream she had experienced a whole drama, like watching a film, with characters, places, details all set out.
It is the story of a young woman, Beth, traumatised in childhood by the death of her parents in a plane crash and then starved of love in an uncaring adoptive home. She is sweet-talked into marriage into a brutal family and eventually saved from being beaten nearly to death by her brother-in-law. From there she is taken into hiding by two clerics with a heart for Christian spiritual healing ministry. After prayer counselling by these new, loving friends she is released from the stranglehold of fear, which has dominated her life, and healed by a mystical experience of the Holy Spirit.
There is, of course, much more to the story; indeed, it is a breathtaking drama and Theresa held me spellbound by her telling of it at the pub. When she had finished she diffidently said, “I have been considering writing this story as a book. What do you think?”
Needless to say, I enthusiastically encouraged her and the following week she began. At first she wrote in pencil on a ruled pad, later typing each day’s work onto a rather primitive word processor. It was a cumbersome procedure and after a few days I said we would purchase a laptop computer, so that she could write straight into it in a room undisturbed by the phone and other comings and goings. This would take a little while because I knew very little about laptops and wanted to ensure we got a unit serviceable to her requirements. Fortunately, we knew a young man, Tim, who was the IT manager at the county college of agriculture, and we asked him if he could help point us in the right direction.
Some days, maybe a couple of weeks, went by while we were waiting for all these events to unfold, and during this time Theresa told me she had a strong sense of there being someone from spirit with her, helping, inspiring in a consciously co-operative way, with the story, the details, the style and creativity of the writing. Naturally curious, I asked if she had any idea who this might be. She said she had a great sense of what he was like but had no idea who it was. This discussion began to get me in tune with the vibes until I also could sense the presence. Still there was no identity readily coming to light and we wondered about this for several days.
“I believe this man is British,” Theresa said to me, “and that he was in the Earth-life until quite recently; certainly during our Earth lifetime; maybe until thirty or forty years ago. If only we could get some initials I feel sure we will be able to work out who it is.”
As she said the bit about initials, instantly into my mind flew the initials ‘CS.’ Of course, there is only one British (I use the term ‘British’ in the sense of being a citizen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland) well-known author with the initials CS and that is, of course, CS Lewis. Suddenly, I ‘knew’, instantly, it was he.
Theresa and I did not know much about CS Lewis, even whether he was still in this world. I had read The Screwtape Letters as a boy and we both knew he was a well-respected author. Theresa had been aware of the girls watching TV dramatisations of The Narnia Chronicles back in the 1970s and 1980s but had caught only snippets of them because she was always in the kitchen preparing meals when they were on.
We got so excited about this, and wanting to be sure, that I immediately went to the library to look him up. Was I in for a surprise!? Clive Staples Lewis was born in Belfast on November 29th 1898 to Florence Augusta Lewis and Albert Lewis. Most of the action in Theresa’s book, Seeds of Redemption, is set in Belfast and the mother-in-law to Beth is Clementine Augusta Brady. At the time of Theresa’s ‘dream’ experience — the characters’ names had been made known to her as part of the event — she did not know that CS Lewis was ‘ghost-writing’ (if you will allow the pun) with her. Nor, until my visit to the library several weeks after Theresa began writing the book, did either of us know that he was from Belfast and that his mother had the middle name Augusta.
In the reference book at the library there was a picture of him taken in later years, in which his hair was very sparse. When Tim arrived to help us set-up the new laptop in readiness for use, he sat at the dining table installing the operating system and programming it for us. Theresa and I stood watching him without any idea what he was doing (such was our computer-illiteracy at that time). Suddenly, there was a man from spirit, in the prime of life, with a full head of dark hair, immaculately combed, with a straight parting down the left side of his scalp.
He was standing very close to Tim, hands on knees, straining forward to see everything Tim was doing and listening intently to every word he said, his head and eyes moving from the computer to Tim’s face every time he spoke. It was so comical I had to bite my tongue to stop from laughing out loud. Tim had no awareness of this other interested party watching and listening to him so raptly! After a few minutes the visitor turned his head sideways to me — still with hands on knees — and said emphatically, “I like this young man!”.
A few days later I bought a biography of CS Lewis, and lo and behold, there in the middle were some photographs of him at various stages of life, including one of him in early adulthood, with a full head of dark hair, immaculately combed, with a meticulously straight parting down the left side of his scalp. It was unmistakably the man I had seen watching Tim with the computer. Here was absolute verification that it was ‘CS’ who was helping Theresa with this writing.
The interesting thing was that, prior to knowing who it was, Theresa had said that she had a feeling she wished to refer to him as ‘Charles’ and that he was a rather rotund, cuddly, pipe-smoking, ‘favourite uncle’ type of person — very much how CS was in later life (he laid aside his body in 1963 aged sixty-five). We both still refer to him lovingly as Charles, and on one occasion, when he gave a message of love and encouragement to Theresa, which she wrote by hand as the message came into her mind, at the end he signed off with the name by which we referred to him, capitalising the first and last letters with a flourish, so that it was very obvious that this was CharleS.
Her writing progressed, and a close rapport developed between him and us. At Communion on June 25th 1995 the following exchange with him occurred:
“Dear Charles, we go forward together, as friends and brothers in Christ, upon the great adventure, into the Holy of Holies, into the presence of our Heavenly Father, who Loves us and is Love.”
“Brian and Tessa* – it is with joy in my heart that I receive your welcome as your friend and brother in Christ. Indeed, it is true that we share in common that one most precious commodity: desire; hungering and thirsting after truth and eternal righteousness. I also hungered and thirsted in my Earthly life, but, sad to say, I lacked the guiding Light which blessedly brought you onto the path of inner awareness. My world was awash with intellectual cleverness and self-seeking and though I desired to enter into my closet and be alone with my Creator, I did not know how to do this. Never mind, because all is for a purpose and I do now assure you that I have, by the grace of our beloved Lord Jesus Christ, gone forward since the days of Earth life and have been relieved of much of its baggage.
“I wish also to assure you that a true heart, full of desire for the Kingdom of God, is a beacon of Light shining into the dark recesses of Earth-mind consciousness, especially in the etheric realms. Here are myriad souls lost on the fringes of eternity, knowing neither how to fully embark on its journey, nor how to disengage from that which restrains them. Your blessed Service ritual, in which your desire goes out, truly provides the bread and wine, the manna and rock-water of old, by which the wanderers of Sinai may be sustained and guided. A sincere heart cannot be hid. If we in the Inner Plane and you of the Earth plane can work together for the rescuing of many, then praise be to Almighty God; may it be to His Glory. I rejoice in the love and warmth of our fellowship. May all the richest blessings of the Lord be forever with you.
“Your friend in Christ service, CharleS.”
The book was finished on November 29th 1995 and Theresa and I went to the pub to celebrate its completion. Charles was with us in the car on the way there, enjoyed the convivial atmosphere of the pub, and walked arm in arm with us both back to the car as we left at the end of the evening, saying, “This is my best work yet!”. As we drove home, we realised that this was the 97th anniversary of his birth.
* Theresa adopted the nom de plume Tessa Charles as author of this book.
When one has dogs and cats in the home there is always a possibility for those unwelcome little jumping visitors, which can make life miserable for their hosts. Being a person greatly aware of, and concerned about, the impact of man-made molecules on the environment, I have been reluctant to use insecticides to control fleas on our pets. So when they arrived in the home in the early summer of 1999 it didn’t take long before they had built up to the point where something drastic was called for to rid us of these little invaders.
I was on the point of succumbing to the use of insecticide when I thought, ‘Wait a minute, fleas are so far down the order of life and we, Papa’s children, are the culmination of His all-empowered, glorious creation; we have something out of perspective here when we allow ourselves to be placed ‘on the back foot’ by these creatures.’ Jesus would, assuredly, never have even considered using pesticides (were they to have been available during his time on Earth) but equally assuredly he would never have been left in a position of feeling helpless in the face of their onslaught. So, I asked myself, what would he have done? As I reflected on this, the remembrance came back to me that everything that ‘turns up’ presenting itself disguised as Adversity is really Opportunity to Transform Adversity into Fulfilment (OTAF) and that this can only be done by faith, not by doubt or fear.
Jesus was able to demonstrate his perfect at-one-ment with the Father Creator throughout his three-year mission on Earth. This manifested itself in an array of ways: multiplying the molecular structure of a picnic lunch so that it was able to feed five thousand men, plus women and children, making a total of possibly double that number of people; walking on water; causing the boat in which the disciples were only about midway across Lake Galilee to instantly be at its destination, (Jn. 6:21), when rowing or sailing would have taken hours; calling souls back to the body from which they had departed (including his own tortured and mutilated body); releasing people from possession by earthbound souls; restoring mortal illness to health from a distance by saying the word — the list is endless.
Was there ever a moment in which he was fearful or doubtful? Just the one: his own imminent torture and death on the cross. Yet, he did not run from this, when assuredly he could have easily done so; and having faced his fear and come through it back to strength and faith, he prevailed in his objectives: to demonstrate to mankind the illusion of ‘death’, and to get our attention.
Clearly, Jesus saw things of which most of us have no awareness. But this is not because those things are withheld from our vision by a partial God. It is because we — ‘having eyes, see not; having ears, hear not’, as Jesus reminded us — are asleep, in terms of our spiritual awareness. All the things Jesus saw and did, we also have the potential to see and do. If we truly seek and earnestly desire, that potential will come to fruition, if only we can believe.
We do not have to wait for this to happen until either we have laid aside our body, or until a full, global manifestation of Jesus miraculously empowers us, because the Kingdom of God and the spiritual empowerment that our at-one-ment with it brings to us, is within. That ‘within-ness’ is in us — each and every one of us. There are, and can be, no exceptions. If we are lukewarm in our desire for, or fearful of, spiritual awakening, then we cannot become fully awake to that reality and our true nature as Papa’s one, beloved, ever-living Son, with all the power of Creation that is available to us by faith, by believing.
So, summoning my faith I said to Papa, “We are empowered by faith to overcome all things, and so, by faith and trust in You, I command these fleas to be gone from this house, never to return.”
As soon as I had spoken these words I saw columns of tiny fleas, following a human-size flea, walking out of the house, rather like the rats following the Pied Piper of Hamelin. As the big flea got alongside me it scowled at me as if to say, ‘Bah, humbug, you have rumbled me and I have no power to resist your command.’ I considered the meaning of a ‘giant flea’ and eventually realised that this was ‘flea consciousness’ with which I had wrestled and, by faith, prevailed. The experience was so objectively real that I knew in my soul that the fleas would be, from that moment, gone — both from the animals and from the rest of the house. And indeed, that was the case. For several weeks there was no scratching from the pets and no flea presence anywhere else in the home.
However, as the weeks went by, my faith and trust in what had happened as a Principle of Life of the Father, in practice, began to flake, and doubts crept in. Not doubts that this was a Principle of Life of the Father, in practice; a real experience, and that the fleas had gone — which they definitely had — but doubts in my own ability to believe that I had been the agency through which this occurred. That was where the doubt lay.
Every day I started looking for them again. Would Jesus have done that? Of course not, is the answer, because that was doubt manifesting itself, and Jesus did not doubt. He knew with a total certainty that when he asked for/called upon the wholeness, the balance of perfection that is the free gift of the Creator, it was always there for him. That is the temporary difference between where Jesus was/is and where most of the rest of us, his brethren in the Sonship, perceive ourselves as being.
Indeed, it would never have occurred to him that what he called upon from the Universal Source, Papa, for the benefit of the ‘lost sheep of the house of Israel’ (or anywhere else!) would not be granted; not as a favour, as if either he or the Jews — or anyone else — were ‘special’, to be granted privileges or benefits that the Creator Spirit would withhold from others because He didn’t love them or see them in the same light. It never occurred to him, not because he had become arrogant or blasé, but because he could plainly see what others around him had withheld from their own discernment: that all creation is One; that all Life, in all its manifestations, is part of, indivisibly connected to, the Allness; for …he is not far from any one of us: for in him we live and move and have our being (Acts 17: 27, 28).
He knew that the Universal Life Force is one and the same within each and every one of us and every other living thing, from amœbæ to blades of grass to olive trees to orang-utans and everything in-between. Jesus saw this and saw that the souls of those around him were in an illusory state of imbalance, disharmony and dis-ease with themselves and with the Allness of which they were part, and that even in their apparently dissonant state they could not actually become separated from Him.
By the attunement of Jesus with the Oneness by his faith, trust, obedience and commitment to the great mission he had sought and to which he had been anointed — declaring and establishing the foundation for bringing into manifestation the Kingdom of Heaven on Earth — he had become empowered to perform ‘signs and wonders’ by calling back into balance and harmony the discordant energies of his fellow-inhabitants of that strip of land at the eastern end of the Mediterranean.
These wondrous signs and miracles were an outflowing of the God-Power within him to those conflicting energies which manifested as various ailments in the mind and body of others, restoring them once more to oneness with Creation. Thus did he say to the paralytic he had healed at the pool of Bethesda, Behold, thou art made whole: sin no more, lest a worse thing come unto thee. (Jn.5:14). What he was effectively saying was, Do not forget, again, Who you really are, or you will attract back into your presence some equally unserviceable condition.
we have power to prevail in the presence of adversity by transforming it, through faith, into fulfilment, ‘that the works of God should be made manifest’.
So, when the doubt — that great dismantler of faith — started to set in and I began looking for fleas again, sure enough, back they came — through the opening created conveniently for them by my own doubt. This was a big test of my faith. Was this — the reality of Eternity with which I had been walking for more than thirty years — nothing more than my imagination, a myth of my own creation? Was it that the Great Spirit did not exist after all? Or was it that He did exist but I had vainly imagined my at-one-ment with Him? Or was it that I had walked, albeit somewhat intermittently, in the reality but had ‘failed’ this ‘test’ of my faith? If this last possibility was the case, where did this leave me now? Surely, bereft, beset by uncertainty, about who I was, where I stood and where to go from here.
At that moment, Papa was right beside me and spoke into my right ear, Don’t give up!! His words were so positive, so encouraging, so reassuring, so exhorting. Instantly my spirits were restored and soared to the heights in reaffirmation that as I had perceived originally, so is it: we have power to prevail in the presence of adversity by transforming it, through faith, into fulfilment, ‘that the works of God should be made manifest’ (in any and all of us).
At this, I felt re-empowered to cast out the fleas again in like manner, and this I did forthwith, with my faith strengthened beyond where it had been on the first occasion. The fleas disappeared, and although from time to time one did show up, picked up inevitably by Susie when coming in close contact with other dogs on our walks, they never again took hold and became established as an infestation.
***
Footnote September 2011: August in southern England is an active time for fleas moving from one host to another. Although we no longer have dogs to exercise I still walk in the Cotswold Hills most days and there, encounter dogs and their keepers. In August 2011 I began to experience flea bites — for the first time since 1999. I had no doubt ‘adopted’ a flea, or fleas, from one of the hill-walking dogs. I thought, ‘It is time to re-engage my God-given empowerment to cast them out.’ But I found my mind was in a state of ‘empowerment limbo’ for this task. I couldn’t think of anything to say, and neither spontaneously felt, nor could I summon, any focus or verve, any feeling of ability to perform this ‘exorcism’.
I re-read the record of the process that had taken place in 1999 (above), thinking that might get me ‘back on the wavelength’, but felt no enlivening of mind or spirit for the task. However much I tried, I felt completely flat, and even though I went through the motions of casting them out — several times — I felt and knew that because I was unable to attune with the empowerment, it was not going to happen; a self-fulfilling prophesy, perhaps.
I knew that it is no use fighting what we cannot control with self-will or determination, so I did the only thing I could — place the entire matter in the care of the Holy Spirit, the higher, all-knowing, real Self of us all, and committed to leaving it There, knowing that by so doing the matter would be resolved in the perfect way at the perfect time, even though, at the moment of so doing, I hadn’t a clue how it might happen. This didn’t bother me because I knew Self knew, and that was good enough for me. I was facing another self-assessment opportunity, and resolved to pass the ‘test’, in the only way possible: by simply allowing the process to proceed and outwork under Holy Spirit control. I recalled to my conscious mind that when what looks like adversity shows up, it is really opportunity, so I resolved to view it as such.
Probably three or four weeks elapsed since the first flea bite and more were appearing, although it had not reached calamitous, panic-inducing proportions. Nevertheless, I could not help wondering, more or less daily, when or how the matter would be concluded. Still, I held my nerve and left the Holy Spirit in no doubt as to my commitment of the situation into His care.
Then, out of the blue, it dawned on me that my understanding of reality had grown exponentially since 1999, and I now realised that everything about egoland is unreality, including, of course, the fleas. If I tried to cast them out, this would be giving them reality in my own mind. No wonder my mind had been ‘closed-down’ with regard to that initial intention. This was Self, putting the lid on persona Brian’s seeking solutions in the past. I had moved along and was ready to engage with Self at another, higher level of operation, even though it had taken me two or three weeks for the penny to drop. As Olga Park used to lament, ‘Why are we so slow!?’
Now, with right-mindedness re-engaged, I said to Self, Jesus, Papa — Whoever was listening — ‘Fleas don’t exist for me anymore because I am choosing steadfastly to Awaken to the truth of my Whole Being. So rather than try to cast out what is not there, I now re-mind myself that they are not there for me. The only reasonable thing to do with nothing is forget it, because it is impossible, in my right, or whole Mind, to be aware of anything but the truth of eternity, so that is what I now choose to do.’
Nothing outwardly dramatic happened, but I had an inner knowing that I had arrived at the answer to the situation, and that, now, the illusory fleas would be gone from my awareness and thus, from my experience. This has indeed been the case. As our beloved friend, the Teacher would say, ‘We go forward’.
In the small hours of one morning in October 1996 I was gradually brought to waking consciousness by a growing awareness that Papa was speaking. I was very drowsy and was more eager to get back to sleep in that state than I was for discussion with Him! I tried to ignore it, thinking, I can give this my attention in the morning. But the Voice continued, and it became clear to me after a while that this was not going to stop until I gave it my full focus. I forced myself into full wakefulness, put on the light and got my notebook and pen. All the while I was doing this the Voice never stopped speaking in my head. As I was becoming gradually more awake and better able to be aware of what was being said, it dawned on me that the message was being repeated over and over, as if to say, ‘I am going to keep repeating this until you take notice and record what I am saying’.
The message was actually not for me; I was to be the recorder and deliverer of it. I was instructed that this was an ‘Open Letter to George Carey’. George Carey was, at that time, the incumbent at Lambeth Palace: the Archbishop of Canterbury, the supreme cleric of the Anglican and Episcopal Communions.
Here it is:
An Open Letter to George Carey
You have assumed the office of My servant Aaron, whom I called to keep himself holy unto the Lord
Now I ask you, by whose authority is your office established — by the authority of Earth or of Heaven?
Have you not read My word; have you not listened to My messengers; have you not reverence for My beloved firstborn, in whose name you parade and strut so vainly?
Have you not recalled that I dwell in the high and holy place, with him also of a humble and contrite spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble and to revive the heart of the contrite ones?
Have you not held in the highest esteem My word through My beloved, that not all who say Lord, Lord shall enter the Kingdom, but he that does the will of the Father?
Have you not remembered his chastisement for righteousness’ sake? Have you not pondered in your heart his words and his actions, that his zeal for his Father’s house drove him to perform: ‘My Father’s house is a house of prayer but you have made it a den of thieves’, and he drove them out?
Have you not held sacred in your heart My warning by My anointed, that he who offends against children, it would be better for him to be cast into the sea, tied to a millstone?
And yet, have you not equivocated and havered concerning these very matters in the outer court of My temple, over which you preside? Whose sin do you believe is the lesser in My sight — that of traders in merchandise and changers of money or of pederasts and pædophiles?
Shall I spew you and yours out of My mouth, or shall I make you a pillar in My holy temple?
I say unto you, incline your ear unto Me and remember the fire that I placed in your heart.
My beloved messenger has opened the door to the Holy of Holies forever and no man shall shut it. Now goes out the cry, ‘the bridegroom comes’ and all are invited to the great banquet which it is My great joy to give to all who will enter in and receive of Me the unspotted garment.
Do you believe I am interested in the sullied sacrifices offered on the brazen altar of the outer court when all I crave from My little ones is their love and thanksgiving, offered upon the altar of their hearts?
It is my desire for all to enter the Holy of Holies, trusting as little children. For this reason have I sent messengers and My beloved and his beloved disciple to foretell of the things which are to be; how the great whore, drunk with the blood of the saints, falls because of her iniquity, and My angel calls out from her My people, that they be not partakers of her sins and receive not of her plagues.
My word has gone out and shall accomplish that for which it has been sent; it shall return unto Me fulfilled. Will you be within it, rejoicing? Will you sing My new song? Will you cry out, with Jerusalem, ‘Baruch haba be’shem Adonai — Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord’?
Think you that I rejoice in wrath? I draw My little ones to Me in Love, that I may embrace them and have with them joyful fellowship unto all eternity.
I AM the loving, eternal Papa of all the children of Earth.
In 1967 Olga wrote a treatise on the messages of the ascended Christ to the ‘seven churches of Asia’ (Revelation chapters 1, 2 & 3) in which she posits that these messages are not just to be perceived as to seven congregations dotted around what is now Turkey at the time that John wrote of these manifestations, but applicable also to seven phases of the church during the period from that time through the entire Christian Era, or second measure of meal. This treatise reasons that two of these churches, Philadelphia and Laodicea, are applicable simultaneously to these times (the changeover between the end of the second measure and the beginning of the third measure of meal), and actually describe two very different churches.
The one, Laodicea, believes itself to be rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing, whereas it is in fact
lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot; wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked, so the Lord counsels it to buy of me gold tried in the fire (of Eternal Spirit), that they may be rich; and white raiment, that they may be clothed, and that the shame of their nakedness do not appear; and anoint their eyes with eyesalve, that they may see. (Rev. 3:18) Further, Jesus says that because they are lukewarm he would spew them out of his mouth. (Rev. 3:16)To the other, Philadelphia, Jesus says he has set before them an open door that no man can shut, for they have a little strength, and have kept his word, and have not denied his name. He says he will bring others who are false believers to learn of them, and also that he will keep them from the hour of temptation, which shall come upon all the world. He counsels them to hold fast to that which they have, that no man take their crown; to those that ‘overcome’ he will make pillars in the temple of God, will write upon them the name of God, and the name of the city of God, and also his own, new name. (Rev. 3:8-12)
Clearly there is much symbolism here, but the differences are that Jesus has a diatribe against Laodicea, and praise and encouragement for Philadelphia.
It is obvious to the objective observer that the institutionalised church of today is perfectly described by Jesus as Laodicea, and that Philadelphia is those congregations and individuals who have kept their love for Jesus and their earnest desire for the Kingdom alive in their hearts, regardless of whatever is going on within the institutionalised, denominational churches; have not allowed themselves to become blinded with rules and regulations and petty, sidetracking, irrelevant, ego-engendered arguments; that where necessary, they have abandoned ‘Laodicea’ in favour of free churches/congregations and home worship (entering into their closets); kept their loyalty to Jesus first and refused resolutely to let Laodicea stand between them and Jesus.
If a person is a ‘citizen of Laodicea’ and decides that this is no longer where he desires to be, it is entirely possible to ‘emigrate to Philadelphia’ simply by the act of so choosing and making the ‘mental shift’. Jesus said to the Laodiceans:
Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me. To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne. He that hath an ear, let him hear... (Rev. 3:20-22)
There is a groundswell of ‘emigration’ from Laodicea actually taking place now, in these climactic times in the events of world spiritual awakening, encouraged by the Creator Spirit, Whose Angel says: Come out of her (Laodicea), my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues. (Rev. 18: 4)
Would-be émigrés will be enheartened by the knowledge that Philadelphia is a substantially plague-free zone.
the
institutionalised church of today is perfectly described by Jesus as
It is, of course, spiritually that the (Laodicean) church of today is lukewarm and it is spiritually that it is ‘wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked’. This has happened because the church has become institutionalised, and the purpose of an institution is to perpetuate itself. This is when the original objectives of its leaders have become lost in a mire of rules and regulations and administrators and petty politics and power struggles, and they now merely perpetuate the institution rather than being motivated by the fire of spiritual zeal for the great desire of Jesus: the Kingdom of Heaven on Earth. This is never mentioned in today’s institutionalised churches because issues such as the ordination of women, and homosexuality, have become the consuming concerns, bogging the institution down in sidetracking detail — a characteristic ploy of ego. Such would do well instead to maintain focus upon the PLFs, which will keep souls in the Earth life on the right path — the Path of Spiritual Progress — through the maze of detail (never was there a truer adage than ‘the devil’s in the detail’) and on course toward our destination: the Kingdom.
The same thing has happened with other institutions of today; government, education, the National Health Service, the judiciary, social services and a very substantial proportion of industry and commerce, including the financial services sector. Their objectives may not be overtly ‘the Kingdom of Heaven on Earth’, but they have still lost their way in terms of their respective objectives. This because again, they have not remained focused on the Principles of Universal Life and have allowed their institutions and regulations to get in the way and cloud their vision. This is summed up well by Jesus’ statement to the Pharisees that the Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.
The ever-increasing number of rules and regulations within all these institutions — and more — prevent those who have abdicated their God-given right to freedom of thought and creativity from expressing that freedom. This is what is meant by references in Revelation to being sealed on the forehead (their Earth-mind) with the mark of the beast (ego), blocking the awareness by those so marked of who they really are. They ‘must abide by the rules’ even where common sense and compassion — compassion is one of the great gifts of the Spirit in humanity — cry out for individual cases, situations and circumstances to be decided upon their individual merit. So, we are creating for ourselves a compassion-free society, at least in terms of the unwieldy institutions that hold sway over so much of life in the various cultures and nations of Earth.
Fortunately, compassion at the individual, personal level of the interrelationships of life can never become extinguished because each of us IS Love, and compassion is an inseparable facet of Love. To remember this, and allow it to hold greater — preferably, predominant — significance in our human relationships (including those relationships between individuals and groups brought into contact through the various institutions to which reference is made above) would be a giant step toward the Kingdom of Heaven on Earth.
One could imagine a scenario in which two Jesuses are travelling around Judæa, Samaria and Galilee teaching and healing. The first Jesus, seeing the multitude, was moved with compassion for them because they were sick and fainting and lost, as sheep without a shepherd; and he went amongst them and healed them of every sickness and disease. And after a long day, when his disciples wanted him to send them away so they could all get something to eat, he says No, I will feed them. And by faith, love and compassion, he transforms a picnic lunch into a banquet for more than five thousand souls, because he loves them all, unconditionally.
The second Jesus moves among the multitudes healing as many as come forward, and when hours have gone by, it’s getting late and he is eager to conclude this tiresome, enervating business, he tells the people they must now go home because he has finished for the day, since there is only so much one can do in a day.
The first scenario is a kingdomly scenario indeed. The second scenario is more in harmony with the society we are creating in today’s institutionalised world. Is the latter the society we really choose to create, in preference to the former? Many of us have read Jesus’ words (perhaps, for many of us, more times than we can remember): Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me. (Mt. 25:40). But still we so often fail to see the connection between the opportunities in our daily lives to ‘do it unto these, our brethren’ yet haven’t the time, inclination, compassion, desire, heart, energy, will or whatever. This, while claiming to be his followers, going to church as regularly as clockwork but not applying our stated desire for Christ discipleship (or simply ‘good citizenship’) in the living of our daily lives amongst our fellows, many of whom are desperate for some reassurance, some encouragement, a friendly smile and caring word; even just to be noticed.
What has caused the institutionalised church to become confused is the fact that the purpose of God goes forward, continually, toward its conclusion. It is an evolutionary process, to do with the expanding, unfolding nature of awakening human spirituality, moved by the drawing power of the Creator Spirit. So, what was the perception of the Israelites under the spiritual leadership of Moses three thousand four hundred years ago as being suitable codes for life are not necessarily serviceable for humanity now, in the third millennium CE, because man, drawn forward by the Spirit of Life (God, if you prefer) has grown, and mankind’s perspective has become enlarged as an inevitable result.
This does not mean that the law and the prophets of the Old Testament are wrong; it means that the Purpose goes forward and so everything moves along; everything has to move along, toward its ultimate destiny. Lessons in third grade are for third graders, but as those same souls move on through the system there is no purpose to be served by continuing with the lessons of third grade when they are in sixth, ninth or twelfth grade.
Jesus said plainly that he had not come to destroy the law and the prophets but to fulfil them. That fulfilment has happened (he said on the cross, It is finished) in eternal reality but, like us being ‘now the sons of God but it doth not yet appear…’, the fulfilment has not yet fully and perfectly manifested itself at the Earth life level of apparent physical ‘reality’. It is happening now, just as described by the lead player of this three-act cosmic drama in the parable of the three measures of meal, with the proving activity of the leavening process taking place one step at a time, across a broad front.
And it will continue to happen because the structure has already been completed at the psycho-spiritual level of being, just as the oak tree is already grown in the etheric level of being at the germination of the acorn. Yes, a woodsman may come and chop down the oak when only part-grown at the physical level of manifestation, therefore thwarting the growth to physical fulfilment. The same thing could happen with the fulfilment of the manifestation of the Kingdom of Heaven (already completed in the etheric) on Earth if there is enough anti-Christ (ego) energy directed toward its destruction, or enough apathy amongst the children of Earth.
However, because Jesus has overcome the world (ego) we have all overcome the world in the only true reality — Eternity — because there is only one of us. All that was required was for ‘one’ to overcome and all have overcome. I have been told numerous times from the Realms of Light that the Great Rescue Programme is infallible and unstoppable. That is fairly convincing terminology, from any angle.
The bride of Christ (Rev. ch. 21), a vast multitude of souls, have, over the last twenty centuries, espoused their lives to Jesus and his great desire for the Kingdom on Earth. Acting in unison of purpose with him, they are similarly empowered with all power in Heaven and Earth as vested in Jesus. A portion of these is in the etheric envelope of Earth and a portion is incarnate at this time of writing, or is in the process of incarnating. They are a mighty spiritual powerhouse for truth, with all the resources of Eternity — Heaven — at their disposal.
This is an infallible, unstoppable, tireless, totally-committed-by-the-power-of-unconditional-love force for the fulfilment of the Kingdom of Heaven on Earth plan. This plan is fully and comprehensively understood by the bride of Christ in the etheric realms, but is not fully consciously understood by most of those souls in the Earth life who love the Lord Jesus, because they have been misled by the smokescreen of false dogmas and doctrines fabricated by the schismatic, ego-controlled, institutionalised churches.
So many of the leaders of those institutionalised denominational churches are lacking the light of spiritual discernment. They are therefore torn between trying to adhere to the scriptures written by and for peoples of very different times and cultures in order to be ‘seen to be faithful to the Letter of the (religious) Law’ on the one hand, and on the other to be seen to be ‘up to date’ with current social and cultural trends. They do this in order to try to hang on to the remnant of their congregations, to whom the Angel is calling, Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues (Rev. 18:4).
And the people, drawn inexorably by the power of Spirit, like iron filings to a magnet, are indeed coming out of her, in droves. They are leaving even though they have no discernment at the Earth-life level of consciousness of the fact that it is the outworking of the Great Purpose of the Holy One (of Which all are inextricably, at the soul level of their being, an indivisible part) in their lives.
This dichotomy of the church — trying to be all things to all people in order to hang onto its now almost exhausted power over the people — is actually accomplishing the very two things it is so anxious to avoid: driving away the congregants because of the havering, equivocation and hypocrisy, and tearing itself asunder because of the division within caused by what the conservatives see as giving way to liberalism and the liberals see as hanging on too hard to conservatism.
The dyed in the wool (religionist) conservatives are — especially in America — becoming more and more radical and right wing in their fundamentalist beliefs, engendering perceptions that adherents to other faiths, and even other denominations of the Christian church, are the ‘enemy’. This is at least in part because of the swing of others to liberalism. And the liberals are becoming more and more disenchanted with the institutionalised church, partly because of the shift to the right by the conservatives.
This is ever-further polarising the mass of humanity calling itself Christian and practising that belief system through any and all denominational churches that are, in actuality, Laodicean. This is because of their resolute adherence to ever greater numbers of rules and regulations which are holding them back instead of freeing them, as would be the case if they saw through the distracting detail and held fast to the Principles of Life of the Father. These Principles take care of the detail, if we are unequivocal, steadfast, in our focus upon them.
Many today believe the Roman Catholic Church is the great whore, Babylon the Great, the mother of harlots, so colourfully described in Revelation chapters 17 and 18. The Roman Catholic Church fits the descriptions sufficiently to justify such perceptions; but such descriptions are not all exclusive to the Church of Rome. The Church of Canterbury, founded by Henry VIII as a breakaway from Rome, has been as full of intrigue, power-mongering, torture, mayhem and ‘living deliciously with the kings of the Earth’, albeit on a lesser scale, as Rome.
The message for George Carey (or whoever sits on that ‘throne’) is addressing the issue of pædophilia and pederasty. Acts of sexual indecency, especially unnatural acts such as pederasty (sodomy) committed by adults against children, is truly an abomination in the perception of all ‘civilised’ segments of society in virtually every race and culture on Earth. This is what Jesus had to say about it:
But whoso shall offend one of these little ones
(children) which believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea. Woe unto the world because of offences! for it must needs be that offences come; but woe to that man by whom the offence cometh! (Mt. 18:6,7)These are issues confronting not only the Roman Catholic Church, with its unscripturally-founded enforcement of celibacy upon its clergy, so that the strongest urge of man (after survival) often finds an outlet in some ungodly behaviour, causing untold guilt, grief and misery upon the perpetrators of such acts as well as the choirboys, altar boys and whoever else are at the receiving end of such, when the clerics could be finding joy and fulfilment with a spouse and a family. There are plenty of acts of pædophilia and pederasty amongst clerics of the protestant churches also, even though in many cases the perpetrators may be married, with children of their own.
And when such acts come to public attention, the church (Protestant and Catholic) is so concerned with the perpetuation of the institution it has constructed around itself that it closes ranks and tries to cover it up. Instead it could do the kingdomly thing of being honest, openly acknowledging the issue and truly endeavouring to first redress it, and second, to work diligently to eliminate the causes of such behaviour, rather than simply sticking yet another finger in the dyke.
society at large becomes
increasingly secular because of
the hypocrisy of the church and the slippery slope down which it is heading.
Unless and until the church gets back to following the admonition of Jesus, to seek first the Kingdom of Heaven and to be concerned about only two commandments (love God and love your neighbour as yourself) the petty squabbles, the divisions, the lapses in seemly behaviour by its clergy and other dignitaries will continue to tear it apart. This rendering is causing it to be marginalised, ridiculed and even despised by society at large, which becomes increasingly secular precisely because of the hypocrisy of the church and the slippery slope down which it is heading. Hardly the way to achieve its objective of ‘winning souls for Jesus’, but assuring the fulfilment of the call in Revelation 18:4: Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues.
I asked Papa what He wished me to do with this message and was sure that the answer was to send it to the Times newspaper. I was very trepidatious about this because I had no desire for the possibility of hordes of journalists at my door twisting my motives, trying to dismiss the nature of the origin of my communication(s) by some ‘rational, alternative explanation’, most of which, in a faithless and perverse generation and without the light of spiritual discernment, are much more bizarre and far-fetched (the elaborate theories of men) than the real truth.
Nevertheless, having been told by Jesus on many occasions over the years that the operation of hiddenness that had been the nature of our solitary or near-solitary mystical communing with Christ for decades would become an operation of openness when the time was right, and that circumstances would bring about the change, I emailed this message to the religious affairs correspondent of the Times Newspaper.
Nothing happened, so after some days I sent it again. Still nothing. Perhaps Papa had meant me to send it to the Church Times? There seemed to be some logic and reason to that so I faxed it to the editor. Nothing happened there either.
As I look back now, in the light of further understanding of the agendas of the various institutions (including the printed and electronic media), I see that it was inevitable that they would not respond; that they would do everything possible to pretend that no such communication could be authentic in its origins because ‘God does not talk to people today; and if He did, it would surely not be to a nobody, without great theological learning from some august institution’.
And if He actually did speak to a nobody, calling into question the state of the religious establishment, how could they acknowledge that the ‘nobody’ messenger was delivering a message suggesting something was wrong; how could they possibly admit it to the world at large, and thus lose face? Exactly that dilemma faced the religious leaders in Jerusalem when they asked Jesus by what authority he performed his acts of healing. He said to them, I will answer your question if first you answer my question: By what authority did John the Baptist baptise, that of Heaven or of men? They reasoned amongst themselves, ‘If we say of Heaven, he will say, Why then did you not believe him? And if we say, of men, the crowds will be upset with us because many of them believed John.’ So they said to Jesus, ‘We cannot tell’; just as Jesus knew they would have to. The religious (and all the other) establishment(s) of today ‘cannot tell’ whether any messenger today is delivering a bona fide message because it would question their position before the citizenry. So they must ignore it as long as they possibly can!
Olga Park received the following message on March 31st 1948:
The Thirsting Christ
It is I, the Christ, who speak,
The Christ whom men undiscerningly worship,
I, the Christ upon the cross,
From out the three-hour darkness
Wherein I did suffer in my soul of the sin that had been,
The sin of Israel and of her priests
Against Moses, and against the prophets,
And the sin that should be, the sin of my Beloved
Against me, her Christ.
I had felt its beginnings in the strivings by the way
Of those, my stewards, unto whom I must entrust my all,
my household, my sweet vineyard.
The spirit of the world was there already
contending for my flesh:
So I took and stripped myself that they might know
as indeed I had taught them often
That the body is more than raiment:
And I took a bason filled with water —
Emblem of my own pure springs, my own essence of life —
and I washed away the soil from their feet —
The uncleanness of their contentious self-desire —
That so they might know to keep my household
free and clean from the spirit of the world.
I had felt its threatenings
in the judgement-spirit of John and James
Who desired that all who received me not
should be destroyed by fire.
I had sensed its flabbiness
in the conforming spirit of Simon Peter,
Who would have had me refuse the cross:
The treachery of its cupidity in Judas,
Who desired to serve both God and Mammon.
I had taught them by precept and by example
And by the influence of my spirit: I had done all,
And I had kept them unto the last
from the spirit of the world.
But there upon the cross I felt it enter in again -
The spirit that cried, It is necessary
that one should die for the people:
Away with him! Crucify him!
And my spirit was driven forth into desert places.
Then I saw the spirit of reckoning standing in
the place of faith;
And the spirit of the scribes had darkened the
lamp of my truth;
And the meek and the poor in spirit,
The pure in heart and the peacemakers
Had their honour taken from them and given unto the
rulers of Earthly kingdoms —
To the clever and the proud and the scornful,
And to mighty men of war:
And the stewards of my household did sell to the wealthy
Tablets of remembrance and windows of coloured crystal
inscribed with their names;
And the light of Heavenly wisdom had gone out.
And an altar was set up, and on it
Stood the symbol of Israel's shame, and
countless thousands
Worshipped the symbol without understanding:
And kings crowned me afresh with thorns,
And soldiers mocked and spat upon me;
And authorities of Church and State nailed my hands
That I could no more bless the humble;
And my feet, that I could no more hasten
to the healing of the sick;
And the dew of my life-essences was dried up,
And the whole body of my Church was shrivelled:
The whole Earth is in darkness because of her
and reels to and fro:
All her bones are broken!
Let the sword pierce her heart
until she cry with Israel
Eloi, Eloi, lama sabacthani — My God, my God,
Why hast thou forsaken me?
Olga was so profoundly shocked by the message of this lamentation that she hid it away for many years, showing it to no-one. I have contemplated the message and its multi-layered meanings since she first showed it to me in 1967. Undoubtedly it will say many things to any who read it, and the more contemplatively it is read and considered, the more meaningfulness it will have for each individual.
It says two main things to me. First is that the so-called Christian Church, at least in its main, institutionalised manifestations at this changeover time between the second and third measures of meal, has followed the same, ego-inspired pattern as the religious authorities of Jesus’ time on Earth. This has been extensively discussed above.
Second, and far more incisive for me has been the statement, Then I saw the spirit of reckoning standing in the place of faith.
This has much wider-reaching implications because it applies both to sectarian and secular sections of today’s world. The dictionary defines ‘reckoning’ as the act of counting or calculating. Today’s secular, materialistic society discredits anything beyond what can be seen, touched, analysed in a laboratory or detected with a piece of electronic equipment. Further, it increasingly marginalises people who display faith in, or profess any experience of, eternal reality, always seeking an alternative explanation (the elaborate theories of men, as Jesus described this to me) to reports of happenings beyond the ‘known’ laws of physics (or chemistry or biology), based on cold, hard calculating.
This is not how Jesus operated his life on Earth and it does not have to be how we, the rest of the Sonship of God, operate ours. Of course most of us are not yet awake to the place where Jesus was in terms of our spiritual awareness, but we are always at free choice as to which way we are headed on the spectrum which has absolute reckoning at one end and absolute faith, trust, obedience and commitment at the other. Even if we are at the ‘reckoning end’ because that is where our conditioning has led us, we do not have to stay there. We can take a leap of faith.
We are loved, accepted, blessed, just as we are and for what we are, every moment, and we are not judged by the Creator Spirit
We are known in our entirety, in every moment. We are loved, accepted and blessed, just as we are and for what we are, and not judged by the Creator Spirit, because we are His beloved Son. All that appears, at the Earth-life level of experience is simply an illusion and is not who or where we really are at all. And because it is an illusion, a dream, it is not real; so our ‘sins’ are not real, but simply mistakes, errors or misperceptions. Jesus knew this (
I and my Father are one). He came to remind us that we are too. This is the Good News.He, the Creator Spirit, does not expect, demand or require of us that we somehow, miraculously, without His help, instantly arrive at the Faith end of the spectrum before He finds us ‘acceptable’ and starts working with us to get our life moving onwards and upwards. But if we awaken to the point where we begin to find in our heart a deep and true and earnest desire to move in that direction — perhaps because we are beginning to realise that the Reckoning end is two-dimensional, hollow, flat, unenlivening, cold, hard, calculating(!), ruthless, soulless, uninspiring, exhausting…. — and ask for help in making a leap of faith into Faith, we are always heard.
We don’t need to go to church to do this, or say a rosary, or confess to a priest, or invoke intercession of the Saints — although they will always be glad to assist! As we take that leap of faith we are always lovingly helped and guided. Believing this will be immeasurably beneficial in enabling that help to be received and experienced.
It will be serviceable if — when — we do make such a choice, to leave the calculator aside (metaphorically speaking) because a whole new dimension, or dynamic, of power starts to come into play that does not need or use a calculator. It is the power of the Spirit of Livingness. Calculators (including ready reckoners!) are not imbued with that Spirit.
All the calculations in this new dynamic are automatic, worked out for us by the benign Spirit of Life, which operates in and through us, enlarging our awareness, restoring us to remembrance that this is who we really are; drawing us back toward and into Itself. And there are no accidents, no coincidences. What may seem like an amazing chance happening is part of the synchronistic plan for us, and of which we are all inextricable parts.
Faith places us within the Living, loving, perfect, beneficent, caring dimension of Papa.
At first we will be functioning only partly in faith, but it is a start and is acceptable, placing us within help, not outside it, as is widely believed, due to some mistaken perceptions about worthiness. Faith places us within the living, loving, perfect, beneficent, caring, helping dimension of Papa. When we are wholly functioning from that place no calculator or spirit of reckoning will be required, but if we are not yet at that place it is not because the potential for us to be there does not already exist.
It is innately within us, as God, the Spirit of Creation and all life, is indivisibly within us, and we in Him. But He will never prod us or try to force us into that place, because He has given His Son free will. And He means it; the free will, that is. He never retracts that gift because He has given His word and His word is eternal, unchangeable and inviolable.
In one sense we have all eternity to awaken spiritually; there is no rush, unless we suddenly feel a sense of urgency to go forward — perhaps because we have just started to become aware of this reality and it somehow appears pressing because we feel we have fallen behind. However, a word of caution because the old adage, more haste, less speed applies.
Balance is an integral quality of Creation and of Creativity. If we try to rush along the Path back Home — a route that unfolds at our feet one step at a time, and is invisible to our Earthly senses — we will find ourselves out of balance in some aspect or aspects of our being, which is a multi-faceted phenomenon. Such imbalance will not be comfortable, profitable or healthy and will lead us into a place called bewilderment! Papa said to me in November 2008:
There is no rush to awaken. Eagerness, yes; but rushing is of ego, and engenders frustration, anxiety, turmoil. Remember, allow it to happen; do not attempt to rush it. Rushing is ego attempting to re-establish control.
As mentioned previously, the Creator Spirit is benign (why would the Creator be other to that which He has created?) and it is His job, His purpose, His desire, to strengthen and restore His ‘prodigal son’, not to break him. So, embarking upon such an adventure — which is likely to take half a lifetime and possibly much more, depending upon where on that Path one is at the time of awakening to awareness of it — is not as daunting as it may seem, in the context of Eternity, as one is about to take the first step!
If one decides to approach it as a grand adventure, to be enjoyed, knowing one will move a step at a time into more and more creative, spiritual empowerment, and will experience love, joy, wonders and fulfilment beyond all ‘spirit-of-reckoning consciousness’, it will be quickly found to have been boundlessly worthwhile. One’s perspective on Life will be utterly transformed.
This will not happen for those who are not ready for such a leap of faith, and the way to know if you are ready is just the same as knowing if you wish to marry that person to whom you are so attracted: if you know of a certainty that fulfilment of your heart’s desire cannot take place without that person, (or taking this leap of faith), then you are ready. Otherwise, you are not; and even if initial steps are taken, out of idle curiosity, it will not be long before the interest wanes and the attractions of time and place regain pole position in the attention stakes.
11. The Crucifixion: “I did it to get your attention”
One of the factors that were so beneficial to Theresa’s healing from the trauma of her childhood, which caused her to have such a distorted self-perception, was counselling, lovingly given at a centre for Christian healing, to which she was introduced by a friendly soul from the office building where we had our business at that time. Over a period of about ten years Theresa regularly attended their Wednesday evening service of healing ministry, and perhaps once a year she stayed in-house for a week of intensive prayer-counselling. These sessions, the like of which are described in Seeds of Redemption, would bring enlightenment by the Spirit of Truth about the factors from her childhood that were still impacting her life and self-perception, enabling a releasing process to take place from the burdens of childhood conditioning.
This centre of Christian healing was of inestimable benefit to Theresa, and the counsellors and other volunteers and staff there had wonderful commitment to their calling and sincerity in carrying it out. However, in spite of their perceptions about spiritual healing (as distinct from spiritualist healing) being somewhat advanced compared with more conservative, orthodox Christian church-minded people, they had no awareness of those from the Realms of Light so closely attendant upon them ministering unceasingly to the sick and fainting spirits of men. Indeed, were one to have mentioned such and one’s actual, conscious awareness of and intercourse with the same, one would have rapidly become persona non grata.
Nevertheless, because of their commitment and sincerity, much good work (aided and abetted from the Realms of Light in a much more palpable manner than they had any experiential awareness, even though they believed it as a matter of doctrine and faith) was accomplished, and Theresa was greatly helped by them over the years she attended.
From time to time I accompanied her to the Wednesday evening service. On one such occasion there was a talk given by the retired principal of a nearby Bible college. He spoke at length about the crucifixion, keeping well within the confines of orthodox Anglican perceptions of this pivotal historic event.
The Crucifixion — and, of course, the Resurrection — is, rightfully, a central aspect of all people professing the Christian faith, and I had thought about this momentous event countless times over the years since I had, as a young adult, given my life into the care, guiding and protection of Jesus. It had always seemed to me that there was something so deeply and profoundly mystical about it that it placed any comprehensive insight into the true depth of significance of the event for mankind well beyond the reach of Earth-mind perceptibility. This is fortified by the vast amount of ecclesiastical doctrine and mythology attached to the event and by which much of Western society is conditioned into limited and restrictive thought parameters.
I felt a longing to have a deeper insight into this crucial act in the purpose of Jesus’ incarnation, and this was brought into focus by the homily of that evening. I sat there, partly listening to the speaker, but more, directing my focus on the living Jesus, who had been so much a reality in my adult life, asking him for greater discernment on this, the most spiritually significant occurrence in the history of mankind. Instantly he spoke, taking me by surprise with the rapidity of the response and the casual manner in which the words were so immediately impressed into my mind, but massively more so by the impact of the words, so utterly different was his response from anything I could have begun to imagine:
‘I did it to get your attention.’
It was a throw-away line. He might as well have been speaking about doing something as (relatively!) mundane as a bungee jump in today’s world.
I sat there, stunned and yet also greatly excited. There was absolutely no doubt that this was the Master who had spoken, and it was further affirmed by the very characteristic nature of his response: designed to get my attention! Olga used to call him the Master of Surprises and I can attest to the validity of such a title.
This seven-word answer cut through all the mythology and doctrinal attachments of the institutionalised church. It brought the whole event down to Earth and made it something that anyone, regardless of their education, could accept, without any previous requirement to conform to any religious creed or doctrine. Jesus did not come to start a religion. He said, I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly. I am the good shepherd: the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep. (Jn. 10:10,11). He is speaking as the Good Shepherd of his flock —mankind, lost in deep spiritual wilderness. Here, he tells us that he has come that we might have LIFE, abundantly; not religion and mythology and dogma and rules and regulations and doctrines.
God is not preventing our entry into the
Kingdom. The only obstacle to our
‘entering in’ is our self.
Mankind was (still is) lost; we had (have) forgotten who we really are. He came to remind us and to lead us back to God in the eternity of Heaven, our true and only Home. In order to demonstrate his credentials that he was (is) the way, the truth and the life and therefore trustworthy to be followed, he had to do something that would grab our attention; not for a generation but for a full two millennia. This, so that he could, having got our attention, lead us, win our trust, our love, our willingness to follow so that he could show us that we are not just citizens of Eternity but citizens of the Kingdom of Heaven — because Eternity and the Kingdom of Heaven are one and the same. The Kingdom is a state of being one with Creation and of our Creator, to Whose wavelength we can attune here, now, in the illusory Earth life.
We don’t have to wait until we ‘die’ and go through some judgement process which will, according to some arbitrary set of rules (which vary according to the religion and the sect or denomination within each religion) determine our readiness/worthiness to become its citizens. God is not preventing our entry. The only obstacle to our ‘entering in’ is our self. We obstruct our entering in by not observing the Way to the Kingdom, or by observing it but choosing not to follow the Way.
There are those who say there are as many ways to the Kingdom (or nirvana or whatever one chooses to call it) as there are people. In the sense that we have all eternity in which to find it, that may be true because if we stumble around, spiritually blind, for long enough, the very fact that we, even in our blind state, are inextricably attached to, part of, one in the Creator Spirit, should indicate that we cannot but be drawn back to the Kingdom of which we are all citizens, however long that may take.
However, this does not take into account that ego is the antithesis of God and is therefore treacherous, lying and deceitful, and is deliberately using these negative, destructive qualities to keep us in the illusion of time and place, because ego’s time is up when we awaken to the reality of Eternity, and the remembrance that time and place is nothing more than a figment of our imagination. The ability of ego to mislead, confuse and shatter our confidence, trust, and one-pointed focus on eternal truth, should not be under-estimated; at least until we are totally certain — as Jesus was totally certain — of who we really are.
But in the Cosmic order of Life, those who are ahead on the Path of Progress back to Eternal Reality have an innate desire (not a wishy-washy, lukewarm, what’s-in-it-for-me desire but an absolute, unequivocal, totally committed, selfless desire) to help forward those further back on the path. Jesus is such a soul who has attained the state of full awakening to remembrance of and oneness with, God, the Creator Spirit. This desire to help is born of Love; spiritual Love, agapé, unconditional, Perfect Love; Love which sees through the illusions in which we have allowed ego to dupe us into believing ourselves as being: sinners, failures, unworthy, guilty, unlovable, limited, mortal etc., etc.
Jesus does not see us that way, and the reason he does not see us that way is because it is not the truth, and he sees only the truth. He sees us for who and what we really are: lost, mistaken, misled, confused, but his younger brothers and sisters nevertheless; all magnificent, innocent, guiltless Children of the Creator who are loved unconditionally, and beyond all Earth-mind imagining, by the Father from Whom he came because he loved us so totally, unconditionally, he simply could not stay away.
Nevertheless, the cosmic ‘rules of engagement’ stipulate that we do not, ever, force our true awareness of eternal reality on those who are not awake, or not ready to awaken to those realities. So Jesus stands at the door of our hearts and lives and knocks. If/when we hear him and invite him in, he will accept our invitation and come into our lives and fellowship with us (Rev. 3:20). He is the perfect gentleman. He longs to enter our lives and he knocks at the door and waits with infinite patience, knowing that when the time is right for us we will become aware of that knocking and open to him.
But he NEVER says, ‘Behold, I am charging at your door with a battering ram, so coming into your life, ready or not.’ And what would be the point? His agenda is God’s agenda and God’s agenda is our agenda. That agenda is that we are here (in the words of St. Paul, Acts ch. 17) to seek after God — even though He is not far from us — by our experiences in our earthly lives, until we find Him. Full stop. In reality, we will never find Him in the outer perceptions of Earth, because the physical universe is an ego-construct, all in the split-off-from-Truth part of the mind of God’s Son, not a creation of God at all, so He, God, is not here, in the without.
Ego will keep up the prestidigitation, to hoodwink us into believing this is reality and that God can be found here, if we look long and hard enough. But we can and do begin to realise, one step at a time, that God is not here, and that will get us beginning to look elsewhere than in the without of the Earth physical; namely, in the within. There are no conditions to our seeking except free will. Others, with a religious agenda, will try to say there are conditions, but this is not as stated by he who, assuredly, knows: Jesus of Nazareth.
This is not an attempt to proselytise citizens of Earth into becoming Christians, followers of Jesus of Nazareth, and away from some other persuasion (religious, agnostic or atheistic). It is simply setting out my understanding, born of my experiences since the 1960s, that regardless of how many ‘ways’ there are/may be to God, the way that I have found has been consistently trustworthy, reliable, loving and lovable, fun, joyful, rewarding, spiritually enlightening and illuminating, constant and steadfast, filled with life-transforming, empowering, spiritual, no-nonsense, take-it-or-leave-it truth.
It is not for me to try to persuade another free-spirit to follow the way I have followed. Indeed, first, each of us persuades our self which way to follow, led by an upwelling of desire from our own within; and second, anyone who wishes to try following the way described in this writing will find himself following a way which he will discover is uniquely his way, not mine. If he desires and chooses to ask Jesus to be his guide, the way along which Jesus will lead him and guide him will be the way Jesus knows is uniquely and perfectly right for him (the seeker), just as he did for me.
It cannot be otherwise, because each of us in time and place is unique, with our own individual potential to develop and fulfil. That is why we are here: to develop and fulfil the potential we have brought with us. That potential is, ultimately, spiritual, and is for the remembrance of who we really are, so that we can break the cycle of birth and death (what I call the carousel, or the not-so-merry-go-round) by forgiving ourself and our brethren, undoing ego and healing all the seemingly broken relationships that are keeping the karmic carousel going round and round, until at last all is restored to oneness in the Sonship. Then we will find ourselves as true Citizens of the Kingdom of Heaven on Earth. Jesus knows this because he has remembered all this, and his job is to help us remember it also.
when an individual is ready to undergo an awakening experience, it will be in secret, with the ‘still, small voice’ speaking silently to and from his own within.
Congregational churches, with scores, hundreds or thousands of members can never be the mechanism by which we have awareness of, and communion with, the living Jesus, and the journey on which he will lead us ‘back to God’, to the Holy of Holies, to the Kingdom of Heaven. This is because the way, being mystical, is hidden from our earthly senses, and our journey is one-on-one with Jesus and/or the Holy Spirit, not in a disparate crowd. Events proceeding in the without, with a congregation of people, will divert our focus from the within, where we have our meeting place with God.
Jesus’ admonition But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly (Mt 6:6) will be entirely more serviceable to the fulfilling of our awakening desire for communion with Him. If a person is at the place where such mass-fellowship in the without is adequate for his personal, spiritual seeking, so be it. But when an individual is ready to undergo an awakening experience, it will be in secret, with the ‘still, small voice’, the Voice for God, speaking silently to and from his own within.
It will not be dependent upon his regular or occasional attendance in a mass gathering of souls for organised worship, and if such a Damascene awakening event were to take place in such a mass gathering, he will ultimately be led by the Spirit away into a secret place, where, and only where, he will be able to open his heart and mind to the mystical experiences and revelations awaiting him. And it will be only when he enters into the closet, ‘alone’, and shuts the door, and there opens the door of his inner being in secret that the living Jesus will respond to his invitation to enter and engage with him in loving, spiritual, mystical, joyous, uplifting, exhilarating, enlightening fellowship.
Jesus, he will discover, is a one-on-one person. That one-on-one experience can then be shared with brothers of like-minded readiness for such sharing, such as was the case with Theresa, Steve and me, but our ultimate mystical encounters with the Holy One are, at this stage of our spiritual awakening, of necessity, ‘solitary’.
Meanwhile, in a mass-gathering of souls in a traditional church service, all the fellowship can and will be only in the without, ‘horizontally’, with the other congregants. Jesus, assuredly, will be there, in the midst, with them, loving, blessing and ministering to the sick and fainting spirits of men, but their focus will be too distracted by outer, horizontal-flowing energies to have vertical, mystical awareness of, and communion with, his living presence. Only those who are ready, spiritually, will be willing to hear and receive the blessing, new understanding and enlightenment that the sharing of such mystical awarenesses and experiences of his living presence in their midst brings.
12. The False Doctrine of Sacrifice as the Path to Salvation
One of the most significant instances of scripture having the potential to turn the practice of Judaism and orthodox Christianity on their respective heads is to be found in Jeremiah 7:22, for which the 17th century translation into English, known as the King James, or Authorised, Version (KJV) reads:
For I spake not unto your fathers, nor commanded them in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, concerning burnt offerings and sacrifices.
This is an unequivocal statement by God to Jeremiah indicating that the very heart, the core, of Mosaic and Judaic religious tradition is founded on a false precept. This is further supported in Psalm 51:16, which states:
For thou desirest not sacrifice... thou delightest not in burnt offering...
and vs. 17 says:
The sacrifices (asked) of (by) God are a humble and contrite spirit.
Isaiah 57:15 supports this position by stating:
For thus saith the high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is Holy; I dwell in the high and holy place, with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones.
King David further says:
I will offer to thee the sacrifice of thanksgiving (Ps. 116:17)...
...clearly indicating that thanksgiving is entirely acceptable to God. If God required bloodletting to secure atonement, He would not countenance the dwelling with Him in the high and holy place those who ‘simply’ had a contrite and humble spirit.
It does not seem unreasonable to construe from these quotes that God does not require, and never has required, sacrifices or burnt offerings. It could not be stated plainer than this, from Jeremiah 6:20:
...your burnt offerings are not acceptable, nor your sacrifices sweet unto me.
The implications for orthodox Christian doctrine are staggering because this states that Jesus was/is the blood sacrifice, or atonement for all humanity, for all time, for their sins. This, as long as the sins are ‘confessed’ — thereby confirming those sins as ‘real’ — and forgiveness sought. Further, that the penitent must state with his mouth and believe in his heart (Rom. 10:9) that Jesus is the one and only Son of God, the propitiator of our sins against the wrath of God.
Unless these conditions are met, so says Church doctrine, God will judge us and condemn us to outer darkness at least, or eternal burning in the fires of hell. In other words, a very conditional arrangement for a God also doctrinally declared to be the God of unconditional love. Orthodox Christian doctrine further states that this sacrifice of/by Jesus is the replacement, or substitute, for all the millions of Mosaic-tradition animal sacrifices that went before, and that subsequent to Jesus’ sacrifice, no further animal sacrifices are required by God.
Yet, as clearly shown by the Old Testament references, above, God never required sacrifices. Verse 23 of this seventh chapter of Jeremiah goes on to say:
But this thing commanded I them, saying, Obey my voice, and I will be your God, and ye shall be my people: and walk ye in all the ways that I have commanded you, that it may be well unto you.
Hosea 6:6 states:
For I desired mercy, and not sacrifice; and the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings.
Jesus quotes this verse to the Pharisees in Mt. 9:13, suggesting to them that they go away and learn what it means! No doubt their egos were cut to the quick by this uneducated, bastard son (as they saw him) of an itinerant Galilean tradesman telling them where to get off.
If Jesus had believed his crucifixion was intended to be a once-and-for-all blood sacrifice, he assuredly would have taught to that effect, but he gave no such teaching.
Would Jesus have quoted this word from the Old Testament prophet, clearly indicating his position — and its oneness with that of God — if it was intended that he, himself, would soon end up as the sacrifice that most manifestations of Christianity state as the fundamental tenet of their faith? If Jesus had believed his crucifixion was intended to be a once-and-for-all blood sacrifice, he assuredly would have taught to that effect, but he gave no such teaching.
This is not intended to repudiate that his crucifixion took place. Instead, it is intended to indicate that his reasons for subjecting himself to this brutal form of execution were entirely different from the church doctrines about it, as discussed in Vignette 11, above, and as explained in great detail by Jesus himself in A Course in Miracles (ACIM).
Surely these scripture references indicate unequivocally God’s intentions for and toward His children. If God is the God of unconditional Love, which religionists agree He is, and nothing of time and place — including sin — exists, because it is merely a dream, an illusion (which is the central theme of ACIM), there is nothing for God to renege on in respect of the unconditionality of His Love. As there is no atonement for sins required by God, sacrifice cannot be on His agenda. Indeed, the Old Testament contains literally hundreds of admonitions toward mercy (not sacrifice), most of which read, ‘His mercy endureth forever.’
So, after more than three centuries of unequivocal statement (in the KJV bible) that animal sacrifices/burnt offerings were not the intention of the God of mercy — which seemed to have escaped the attention of (or been conveniently overlooked by) both orthodox Jews and Christians — along come a raft of new translations. Most of these agree with the KJV version of the statement in Jeremiah 7:22 — but with two very notable exceptions: The New International Version (NIV), in which that pivotal verse has had one extra word added that causes the verse to imply the exact opposite meaning. That word is ‘just’:
For when I brought your forefathers out of Egypt and spoke to them, I did not just give them commands about burnt offerings and sacrifices.
The New Century translation adds the word only instead of just. I have software with sixteen Bible translations, and all the others agree with the intent of the KJV wording. Some might say that the NIV and New Century wording is making change for change’s sake. Others might ask if, perhaps, they were made to comply with and thus give (false) validation to Jewish and orthodox Christian doctrines held for millennia.
The term used by institutionalised religion for this doctrine of sacrifice is ‘Atonement’. In religious circles it is pronounced ‘a-tone-ment’. The actual, correct pronunciation is ‘at-one-ment,’ which derives not from Latin or Greek but from Anglo-Saxon, and literally means ‘making at one.’ This simple change of pronunciation helps to bring a totally different light of understanding to the whole confusion.
It is not the death of Jesus on the cross that ‘makes us at one’ with God but his life — and his demonstration of Life’s indestructibleness by/through his resurrection — and leading us back to God by reminding us who we really are: eternal, immortal Beings of Light, God’s perfect Son, all One within the Sonship.
As shown above, Bible scriptures completely negate the contrived, false, unauthorised-by-God-or-Jesus Christian Church doctrine that Jesus was sent by God (or volunteered) as a once and for all blood sacrifice to God to assuage His wrathful, vengeful frame of mind for the ‘sins of the world’. This, and everything to do with sacrifice and suffering ‘for the good of the soul’ is not from the Voice for God, but from the voice of antiChrist, the ego. This is made very comprehensively and unequivocally clear by Jesus (does anyone know better than he?) in ACIM.
He chose to demonstrate the illusory nature of make-believe’s trump card — death — in a drama so intense that it would get our attention and hold it, for two thousand years, getting us to actually listen to him so that he could tell us the truth and we would have good reason to believe him. The fact that ego-mindedness caused most of us to misconstrue his demonstration and interpret it as a God-intended sacrifice (just to continue the old, wrong pattern in a new form) was of no consequence to Jesus, who knew perfectly well that this would happen, because he knew that this is the nature of ego.
Here is what Jesus tells us in ACIM about the truth of our Being and the misperceptions we have made that got us into the spiritual darkness that hides this truth from our awareness:
Hear, then, the one answer of the Holy Spirit to all the questions the ego raises: You are a child of God, a priceless part of His Kingdom, which He created as part of Him. Nothing else exists and only this is real. You have chosen a sleep in which you have had bad dreams, but the sleep is not real and God calls you to awake. There will be nothing left of your dream when you hear Him, because you will awaken.
Your dreams contain many of the ego’s symbols and they have confused you. Yet that was only because you were asleep and did not know. When you wake you will see the truth around you and in you, and you will no longer believe in dreams because they will have no reality for you. Yet the Kingdom and all that you have created there will have great reality for you, because they are beautiful and true.
(ACIM, T-6.IV.6).
13. A Mass Rescue and Healing.
Jesus tells us that we are the light of the world (Mt. 5:14). John states: Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he (Jesus) shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is. (1Jn. 3:2). We are now in the time of the fulfilment of John’s words. We are awakening to the remembrance that we are like, or the same as, Jesus.
Jesus is the saviour of the world and therefore, in truth, we also are, with him, the saviour of the world. He states plainly in A Course in Miracles that the world cannot be saved without our input, our involvement, because we are all, eternally, indivisibly, one. And so, unless and until we choose to join with him, the Sonship is incomplete, and therefore, not saved, or saveable.
Ego would have us believe all this is arrogance in the extreme; a heresy, blasphemy, apostasy. But that is its effort to hide the Truth from us and keep us on the carousel of birth and death. Do we believe Jesus was/is arrogant? There is no need of arrogance when one knows the Truth. Arrogance is bluster to cover fear and ignorance.
Ego is on very shaky ground because its foundation is built on a lie, an untruth, an unreality, and therefore has no substance to uphold it. So it is inevitable that the resistance of ego to this reality will fail and we shall remember the Truth of our Being, and our only purpose for appearing in time and place. This does not mean that any one of us must single-handedly take on the role of saviour, but when we begin to remember and accept our true, unlimited state of Being, we will actively want to participate in the saving process. Only our belief in the illusion of limitation denies our acceptance of this truth.
Theresa and I attended a ‘Five-Day Intensive’ entitled Unconditional Love — the Place of Miracles by Michael Roads. During this five-day event participants were led by Michael in a series of ‘Inner Experiences’ in which the attendant group is prompted to close their eyes, relax and enter into their own beautiful, landscaped valley, where all is peace, love and joy. There, they can encounter whoever ‘shows up’. This might be departed loved ones, or still-incarnate souls with whom we might have some outer conflict — major or minor. We are invited to join with such visitors for a healing, loving, sharing, joining experience.
There is a pool, into which a waterfall flows, but the pool and waterfall is Love and Light, and when we enter the Love and Light wash away the cares, the hurts, the pain, the fear, the grievances, the unforgiveness and in their place inner peace, joy and unconditional love become the experience. I had no-one particular in mind who I wanted to turn up. Instead, to my surprise, I found myself in a sphere of Light, about the size of a small car, speeding through a large, dense forest at about the pace of a sprinting man. This went on for quite a long time — maybe a minute or two; time is illusory, especially in a non-physical experience.
I expected to arrive at a clearing in the forest, but this did not happen and the experience eventually faded out. Then I found myself back in the lawned area of the valley, near the pool of Light. A number of children — perhaps as many as twenty — appeared. I opened my arms and my heart and they came racing to me, clambering right into me as my heart opened and expanded to receive them. There was great love, joy and excitement.
Then, when it seemed all were ‘aboard’, a little boy of about three came stumbling/racing up, calling out, ‘Don’t forget me; don’t leave me out’, and into my heart he climbed with all the other children. That little boy was me! Then, as I pondered this later, I realised that all the other children also were ‘me’ from other incarnations. They appeared as children because spiritually, that is what we, who are not yet conscious of being Awake, are. This was a healing, rejoining, reunifying of aspects of Self that have been appearing as fragmented, broken ‘masquerade-costume’ personas, the ‘present’ one of which appears in form as ‘Brian’.
The scene then changed and these children/aspects of Self were playing joyfully in the pool and standing under the waterfall of Love and Light, immersing themselves in ‘Showers of Joy’ which were, at the same time, healing. In due course Michael announced that it was now time for event participants to leave our valleys and return to our bodies in the event room. As I began the return journey the children were a little reluctant to come with me because they were so happy playing in the pool. However, as I reminded them that we were all now ‘re-joyned’ as one, they left the pool and came racing up to accompany me to the gate that led out of the valley.
As we walked toward the gate I became aware of untold numbers of African children amongst the trees that lined the edge of the valley. These children — all boys as far as I could detect — have been killed/died in the multitudinous wars raging around Africa in recent times, and still continuing in many countries. It brings new meaning to the term ‘the dark continent’.
The children — ranging from age about six to about twelve — have been forced into the fighting and killing. The Love in that valley was so great that the fear and hatred that festers in their souls was sublimated by It and they were drawn to It. They were still trepidatious about coming out from the woods and joining us because trust is still an issue in them after all they have experienced, but the look on their faces (seared into their souls — and mine!) was a combination of, ‘Please can we join you? Will it really be safe to join you, as it appears to be? We are so desperately in need of love, comfort, succour, nurturing, LOVING, and we can see the Love radiating from you and in this beautiful place.’
But they were still tinged with doubt, uncertainty. I assured them they would be safe if they felt able to emerge from the dense woods, which was a place in which they believed they could hide, if need be, from more of what had been their wretched, terrified lives. But I felt that remaining focused on the reunifying process with the aspects of Self was the priority of the moment, in order not to become distracted and somehow ‘lose contact with the process’. So I paused, looked deep into their souls and promised them I would not, could not, forget them; would be back for them very soon, and would bring help with me for them.
The next morning I returned, to assure them I had not forgotten them and would never abandon them. The following day, I went back and was aware that there were also thousands of girls there. They had been hiding further back in the woods on the two previous occasions. These girls, all also pre- or barely-adolescent, as far as I could see, had been brutally raped and otherwise abused, and murdered.
I had promised these children I would be back for them and would bring them help to take them to a safer place; a place of Light, Love, Peace, Joy and healing of the terror, hatred, killing, abuse, murder that was all they had known. Yet the fact was, although I had total, unswerving commitment to help them, rescue them, bring them to Love, I had no idea whether I was empowered sufficiently for such a seemingly mammoth task, nor how to go about it.
Indeed, I knew that of myself I definitely could not accomplish this. Nevertheless, having made an absolute commitment to them, I had no intention of not going back. As I returned to them that third morning, the relief on their faces — the dissolving of doubt into hope — that I had not abandoned them was enough to melt the hardest heart. As I approached them to show them my love and benign intent, suddenly, Jesus was there, coming from behind me toward them.
As I became aware of this I realised that all that was needed of me was to reassure them, demonstrate to them that they are loved, unconditionally. This placed them at ease and receptive to loving help; indeed, eager for it and aware that it was possible, available, whereas until these encounters they were unaware of any hope at all. This establishes a preparedness in their hearts and minds (as is the case with any who are in desperate need of succour, or rescue from terrible experience) to receive the help. Without that it would not have been possible for them to be aware of Jesus’ presence, because fear obscures the awareness of the Realms of Light.
He opened his arms,
wide enough to enfold the world, and these blessed children came rushing
into those all-loving, all-embracing arms and heart.
The previous two encounters with them had enabled that preparedness, and their becoming aware of Jesus. Needless to say, I was profoundly grateful that he had come, because until that moment I hadn’t a clue how to proceed from there. How characteristic of him to turn up at precisely the appointed moment! He squatted — to be at eye level with the children — and opened his arms, wide enough to enfold the world, and these blessed children came rushing out from the woods, into those all-loving, all-embracing arms and heart. They knew they were now safe and LOVED; that there would not, could not be any more terror, emptiness, abandonment, uncertainty.
It was a priceless, precious moment which I will never forget. To know there has now been established this ‘bridge’ between this dark place from where these precious souls have come, to the Light, to release, relief, and across which an indeterminate, limitless number of others will now be able to follow, is a great treasure, a ‘pearl of great price’. Days later I realised that the journey through the forest in the sphere of Light was, in some way of which I was unaware at the time, to establish a connection with those African children who were hiding there.
I have a feeling that there must have been around half a million of these, our brothers in the Sonship of God. There are untold millions more, from every continent, lost, terrified, hopeless, helpless. Jesus would not leave one of us — you, me, them — without succour, help, rescue, healing, LOVE. We do not have to be fully Awake, Self-realised, to offer our assistance and thus each be, along with him, saviours of the world.
There are those who would say of themselves, ‘How can I be a saviour of the world? I have not been authorised or empowered for such.’ The only authority and empowerment required are desire, willingness and love for our fellows, our brothers. Jesus and/or the Spirit of Truth, our real Self, will accomplish all the rest for us.
14. “There is no light of discernment”
During the late 1980s and early 1990s Steve and I usually met mid-week at a local hostelry, often one called The Little Owl, for a glass of ale and kingdomly fellowship. We have had many amazing experiences and encounters on these occasions, and the Master Jesus was almost always present to one degree or another of our awareness of him.
On one occasion, at the Little Owl, Steve had taken a comfort break, and as I sat there awaiting his return and looking around the bar area, across the room I saw a group of about half a dozen young men, early thirties, standing and quaffing their drinks, enjoying a light-hearted time together. As I casually watched this happening, I saw the Master Jesus walk across the room toward them. He came right up to them, put his arms around the shoulders of two of the men in the group (I feel sure that with his heart he embraced them all equally) and stood there in easy togetherness with them.
Needless to say, none of these young men had any awareness of his presence in their midst. This did not distress the Master, of course, and he stayed with them for a few moments, radiating his unconditional love toward them. I feel certain that even if they had no conscious awareness of this, at the psychic level they will have felt it, and no doubt went home feeling that they had enjoyed precious, quality time together.
After maybe twenty or thirty seconds, Jesus turned his head toward me and said, indicating the young men,
There is no light of discernment. There was no dismay, disappointment, judgement or any negative vibration in his observation. It was a simple statement of fact, with barely the tiniest tinge of sadness, and in no way lessened his love for them all. I do feel sure that he would dearly have loved them to have been aware of him, but if they had, and had realised who he was, it would have put them ill-at-ease; and of course, that is the last thing the Master wishes to do with any of his ‘little ones’.On another occasion, Steve and I went to a hostelry at Tewkesbury, a charming, riverside town in north Gloucestershire with roots back to Roman times. There are many Tudor, Georgian, Victorian and Edwardian buildings in the town and it has a rather timeless aura about it.
As we sat enjoying our ale and fellowship Steve suddenly said, “I have been aware of a man standing to my left and he seems to have been brought here by two angels. I didn’t like this intrusion so I said to him, I command you, in the name and by the power of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, to go away and not to return."
“What happened?” I asked.
“He took a big step backwards and had a rather shocked look on his face,” Steve replied. “But he didn’t go away and the angels are still standing either side of him, upholding him."
“Do you believe this man to be evil?”
“No,” he said, “just an unwanted intruder. No doubt he has problems, but so have we all, and who needs this interruption?”
I began to pick up on the vibes of what was going on and it became clear to me that this man had been brought to us for help, blessing and release from whatever condition was holding him back. There was no evil intent about him but he was clearly in distress.
I was well aware that in cosmic law, we go forward and are blessed ourselves by our acts of blessing and helping others to go forward, and I suggested to Steve that here was a soul who had been brought to us for our help; that this is a kingdomly thing to do and a true Christ service. The light dawned in Steve and he realised that this was indeed the case. His whole attitude changed toward the visitor, and together we blessed him for the peace of Heaven and release from his distress and going forward into the Light.
Later, as we stepped outside to make our way home, Steve told me he could see the street packed with souls from Edwardian, Victorian, Georgian, Tudor and all ages, each going about his business, completely oblivious to the presence of the people from all the other eras, walking right through each other. He could see the present day events, with electric street lights, Tarmac road; cobble-stone paving and gas lamps; unpaved, unlit street, all superimposed upon each other.
Clearly, they were still acting out the conditions of their earthly lives many years and even centuries after they have departed their earthly bodies. This is so even for those whose end to their incarnation was not traumatic, but are not yet at the place of awakening whereby they realise they have laid aside their body.
It was not just the half-dozen young men at the Little Owl for whom there is ‘no light of discernment’. How needy the world is for a completely new understanding of who and where we all really are, and the spiritual source, origin and eternal, divine nature of our being. This will not just benefit the presently incarnate generation, but past and future generations also, because those from previous eras — who have, as the Master once said to me, …left their Earth bodies behind but not their Earth mind — can then be blessed for release from being stuck in their time-warp and go forward into a new phase of awakening on the path back to Eternity. Those of ‘future’ generations, meanwhile, will be able to receive more serviceable reminders from their elders about who they really are: citizens of Eternity, returning to Earth for another opportunity to resolve outstanding issues through the process of true forgiveness, and thus enable the hastening of their return Home, permanently, having dispelled ego and left behind any need for time and place in which to ‘hide’ from Papa.
On our way back from one of our midweek evenings at the pub for spiritual fellowship, as we drove through the Gloucestershire countryside at about 11 pm, I saw, in the light from the car’s headlamps, a barn owl flying at tree-top height above us. Suddenly it swooped down at the car. Its head smashed into the windscreen right in front of my face and its eye burst on impact, spreading the vitreous humour over the glass, partially obscuring my vision.
The bird disappeared from view, presumably being tossed over the roof of the car. I stopped and Steve, very distressed — as was I also — by seeing this beautiful, (endangered species of) bird mortally wounded, said, "I must see if I can find it", and got out to look for it.
“Steve,” I said, “the poor creature could not have survived that impact; it is dead.”
Nevertheless, he could not give up without a look. But it was an impossible task, in the country, no street lights, a thick hedge obscuring the view into the neighbouring field, and after a few minutes he got back into the car. Neither of us knew why this bird should have apparently deliberately swooped down from sixty feet in the air straight into the car, as if attacking it. Years afterward I was told that barn owls are very territorial and will attack anything they perceive as a threatening intruder into their area.
Later, as I got into bed, the experience was deeply embedded into my mind and I said to Papa, “I bless this beautiful creature for Your peace.”
Instantly I saw Him, the owl cradled in His left arm and stroking it with His right hand, lovingly and tenderly. He said to me,
Many of My creatures will return to Me this night. Then, after a slight pause, All are within My care.Of course, at the intellectual level I knew this to be true but the experience of Papa showing me His precious love for this beautiful creature, nurtured in His arms like that and speaking those words, brought home to me in a very comforting and reassuring way, the actuality of His universal and yet always tender, caring, perfect LOVE.
***
Theresa and I had been visiting friends and family in Sussex one summer weekend in 2002. As we headed off for Gloucestershire through Ashdown Forest, where I had spent an idyllic childhood on the farm, we came round a bend and there, lying toward the side of the road was a deer. It had been hit by a car; there were bits of bumper and other vehicle debris in the road. This had happened only moments before our arrival on the scene. The driver had not stopped. The deer was mortally wounded but fully conscious, unable to move other than its head. There was blood and frothy sputum coming from its nose, and in its flank was a huge bulge, about the size of a rugby ball, and swelling visibly by the minute. My guess was that this was internal bleeding.
I felt absolutely helpless. Heart and soul overflowed with love and compassion for this beautiful creature, struck down in its prime, life ebbing swiftly away. After the experience with the barn owl a few years before, and remembering Papa’s words, I cradled its head, looking into its eyes. They were completely calm and accepting. I gave thanks for its life and blessed it over and over and over, committing it into Papa’s loving, precious care, all the while asking that He receive it quickly and bring a swift end to this distress. It seemed to take an interminable time, but after what was probably about five minutes it was gone, back to Papa. Alleluia.
The next morning, back at Gloucester, I sat at my desk attending to the day’s events when suddenly, there beside me at my left was the deer, large as life. I reached out to stroke it and it nuzzled my hand. We communed silently for a few, loving moments, soul to soul, two individuations of Life, unified in this moment of eternity in mutual recognition that we are each part of the Oneness that is the Source of All. Then, instantly, it was gone, running free in peace and joy.
When humanity has awakened to the place of Oneness, there will be no need for laws against activities that deprive any of the other life forms of their natural dignity and freedom.
Truly, not only are we humans all children of the One God, brothers and sisters one and all, but all living things, in all their diverse forms of manifestation, are of the same, One Life. To become aware of this and to experience its reality is a blessing beyond any experience of the ‘spirit of reckoning’ consciousness, which perceives separateness as its reality. When humanity has awakened to the place where the experience of the Oneness becomes its reality, there will be no need for laws against cruelty to animals, factory farming and all the other activities of man that deprive any of the other life forms of their natural dignity and freedom.
16. Peter: “I came to clear the way for her”
In 1992 our older daughter went to Gloucestershire’s college of agriculture to take a three-year course in equine management. She had been in love with horses from the time she was a toddler. My grandfather, Poppa, had been a horse breeder and Pop was also a horse lover but whilst I can admire a fine looking horse from the other side of a fence, horses do not seem to recognise me as their friend! So horse whispering skipped a generation with me, but it came back with the next generation. She took to the course like a duck to water, but it was to be short-lived.
The phone rang one day at lunch time. I was out walking the dog when Theresa took the call. It was the college calling to say, ‘Just to tell you that the ambulance with your daughter on board has just left here on its way to the hospital’, and then hung up. You can imagine the goings on from that moment, but to cut to the chase, she had been thrown from a skittish horse that had been overworked and had had enough for the day, had landed flat on her back and fractured two lumbar vertebrae. The fact that she ended up neither dead nor paralysed is a blessed act of Providence if ever there was one!
The ambulance paramedics were fantastic in every possible way: professional, kind, caring, gentle, loving, kept her spirits up; even visited her in the ward days afterwards.
Theresa got to the hospital about the same time as the ambulance carrying our daughter. At the hospital they gave her opiates for the pain. Theresa and I took it in turns visiting her while she was there for about ten days. During that time she made a truly spectacular recovery. She had to give up the Equine Management idea as a career prospect, but her life is largely unaffected by this experience, as demonstrated by the fact that her main sporting love is snowboarding.
One evening when I was visiting her in hospital the conversation somehow got onto the subject of her siblings in spirit; especially Peter, with whom she has always had a very close bond, through innumerable incarnations. Mark, the boyfriend of the time, wanted to know about Peter so I started to explain how he was her big brother, who had not made it through into this world because of the problem Theresa had had with the car accident at age eighteen causing a rotated pelvis, resulting in the womb being distorted, and his fœtus not having room to develop fully, thus ending in deformation, death and miscarriage of his developing body at thirty weeks of gestation.
Mark sat there taking all this in and was understandably quiet for a while, as were we all. During that silence I heard Peter, who had doubtless been with us all along, suddenly say, “I came to clear the way for her.”
The impact of that statement was electrifying and we were instantly welled-up with its implications. This meant that he knew it would not be possible for Theresa to carry a baby to full term in the displaced uterus (her rotated pelvis was re-positioned by a chiropractor when Theresa was two months into her second pregnancy) and had deliberately decided to take what he knew would be a body that could never survive, in order that it would grow and gradually push the womb back into a correct position so that his sibling could come through after him into this life.
Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends (Jn. 15:13). Theresa wept when I told her of this revelation later that evening.
So much of biblical/religionist terminology is allegory, symbol and/or analogy. Jesus used symbols to create images so that the people of his time and these times could understand the Principles of Life of the Father. For example, use of the word ‘fallen’ to describe the state/condition of Earth-life humanity refers to a state of consciousness. Most of us in the Earth life are conscious at a very limited level compared with our true, eternal, all-knowing awareness (Now are we the sons of God but it doth not yet appear…), so in that sense we are ‘fallen’. It is nothing to do with fallen in the way it has been construed by mainstream Christian denominations, who perceive the word as meaning fallen into ‘sin’ — or ‘out of Grace’ with the Father Creator. That perception is religious mythology fabricated to obtain and maintain power over people by the consciousness of fear.
Similarly, the concepts of evil, the devil and hell are mythological/allegorical constructs to explain the ego, and project the guilt and fear away onto any person or thing outside the self.
Throughout most of my journey with Jesus he continued to use these symbols that he used during his Earth life — and that are part of biblical and religious terminology — in his leading me to a more spiritually awakened state of awareness. There is nothing wrong with the allegories; it is the limitation to growth of understanding that rigid maintenance of such terms as literal which is unserviceable to the spiritual awakening of humanity to the Truth of Eternity and our integral place in It.
This experience came in the form of a dream. It was very vivid, and I was both witnessing it and participating in it at the same time.
On a well-populated, sandy beach of the island there is frequent talk about a fabled land across the sea. Some are convinced of its reality, others are undecided, and yet others are completely unwilling to believe.
Many — most, even — would like to escape from the island to this idyllic, Elysian place, which offers so much more than the island on which the people appear to be marooned, living barely an existence. A legend has developed that the distant place is the true home of these people; that the island is a temporary habitation only and this is why so many crowd the beach, hoping for a glimpse of their true home, so far away across the sea. But fear of the unknown keeps the people indecisive about seeking ways to reach their heart’s desire, and so they remain wistfully on the beach, vainly hoping for a way to be opened for them.
From time to time someone ventures out into the sea, almost in desperation, as if to swim to their true home, unable to wait any longer. Many watch the venturer, with mixed emotions; some express great doubt and trepidation, and call him back, exhorting him to give up his hopeless quest. Others eagerly urge him on, willing him to succeed, perhaps against all reason or expectation, to reach the Promised Land, from whence he will, perhaps, return with great news of its reality and a safe passage there for the rest of the island dwellers.
Most who venture into the water turn back after a short distance, too unsure, discouraged by those on the beach calling to them that it is too hazardous, and they will never make it; and besides, who can be certain that the Elysian land is even there? Those venturers who are not tempted back by their fellow island dwellers and, out of unremitting hope, or perhaps, desperation, continue on their way, eventually disappear from view in the sea, and no-one knows if they have made a safe passage or have been lost forever. Sometimes a large wave appears to swamp the swimmer, and the watchers from the beach say, “There, it is much too hazardous; we dare not risk it. It would be suicide. We’re better off staying here; at least it’s what we know.”
Much of the time the view across the water is hazy, and visibility is limited to only a few miles. But occasionally the haze clears and people strain to see if the distant shore can be detected. Sometimes it seems as if it is just visible, far out at the horizon, and a great gasp goes out amongst the people. Some excitedly cry out, “Look! There it is, there it is.” Others, fearful, say, “No, it’s a mirage; it’s too faint… we cannot be certain.” Then the haze returns to obscure the view and any possibility is lost, again, of the certainty being established that their much hoped-for homeland is there. The people resign themselves once more to remaining on the island.
Then, down onto the beach from the hinterland comes one of their number, who has said little, but in his heart of hearts has a deep, unshakeable, inner knowing of the distant shore’s reality and that it is where he and his fellow island dwellers belong. He is determined to find a way to get there. He has long held this commitment but now, finally, it takes hold of his heart and mind, obscuring all thoughts to the contrary, and galvanises him into action that has brought him from inland to the beach. He looks around and there, part hidden in a cleft where the beach rises into steep, grassy banks, he spies a tiny, flimsy, pitch-covered coracle.
Without hesitation he picks up the coracle, walks out into the sea with it and clambers aboard. It is just big enough to hold him, seems barely seaworthy and entirely inadequate for a voyage of indeterminate duration into the unknown. But he has taken a leap of faith, and so one-pointed is his commitment that he is determined to reach his destination, come what may.
Outwardly, it seems foolhardy; certain to end in disaster, and such misgivings are loudly echoed by many of the onlookers on the beach, who call out, “Come back, you’ll never make it; that thing is a death trap. It will be swamped by the first wave, before you get half a mile out. Besides, sharks will rip it to pieces and then you’ll be a goner.”
But in his heart he has a knowing, a certainty that, flimsy, unsafe and inadequate as the coracle outwardly appears to be, in direct proportion to his holding fast in faith, trust and commitment, he will be upheld and protected by an invisible hand, the Hand of Providence, and guided safely, regardless of the apparent hazards of the journey.
As each danger arises — high waves, boisterous winds, sharks circling menacingly — he reaffirms his faith in himself and his trust in the Guiding Hand, and as each threat passes without disaster, he gives thanks, and his faith and trust grow until he feels as if he is not paddling a tiny coracle, but soaring over the water, above the dangers, causing him to sense that he is no longer within their reach.
He notices that the breezes and the currents are now carrying him further and further from the island. His fellows on the beach become smaller and smaller; their voices warning of disaster fade into the distance until they are nothing. Now he is at the point of no return, but he is looking ahead only, with no thought of fear, no hankering for what he has left behind. The warm sun shines on his back and a shiver of anticipation and excitement courses through him. Gradually, the haze ahead thins out before him and there, suddenly, so near and welcoming is the beautiful-beyond-description, not-so-distant shore.
Upon it, waiting eagerly and lovingly to greet and embrace him into their midst are his loved ones, whom he has always known in his heart and soul were there for him, caring, exhorting, encouraging, blessing him every moment, regardless of where he was and what he was doing, until at last, by faith, he found his way home, rejoicing.
I had this dream in the 1990s. It was only in late 2005 that I began reading A Course in Miracles, for the first time, and it was well into 2006 before I came to Workbook Lesson 182, the first paragraph of which reads:
This world you seem to live in is not home to you. And somewhere in your mind you know that this is true. A memory of home keeps haunting you, as if there were a place that called you to return, although you do not recognize the voice, nor what it is the voice reminds you of. Yet still you feel an alien here, from somewhere all unknown. Nothing so definite that you could say with certainty you are an exile here. Just a persistent feeling, sometimes not more than a tiny throb, at other times hardly remembered, actively dismissed, but surely to return to mind again.
